- Location
- Gotham
Take away the words (the and out of) it was pretty late when I read it
Bootstrapping (Multi-cross, Book 2 - Now in Naruto)
- Thread starter Tersin
- Start date
Book 1 - Debts Long Overdue
- Location
- California
I start to lunge forward with a snarl that vibrates the air, only to be abruptly brought up short. Mia has an arm pressed against my chest to hold me back, and after a moment small arms wrap around my waist. Shirone actually lifts me off the ground to keep me in place.
They might be trying to say something, but I'm too consumed with burning rage to register anything. At least until he starts to speak.
"Princess Kunou!" He still talks like a brain damaged eighties superhero, "I am glad to see you arrive safely!" He sweeps his still sparking rapier up into a salute, "It must have been very frightening for you. I wish my peerage and I had managed to catch up to the stray before it could accost you, but alas we were too slow." He sweeps his sword down dramatically, and has an overdone look of sadness and contrition, "Now all I can do is offer you a place of safety, a place to grow so eventually you never need to be afraid of such beasts ever again. I want you princess... to be my queen!"
There's a moment of silence as he finishes his speech that he preens in slightly. None of us are really watching him though. As he talked, something that looked a lot like a heat shimmer appeared behind him. Slowly, just above the devil king on the steps, the air peeled back revealing a doubledecker bus sized golden fox. Nine long sinuous tails weaved a mesmerizing pattern behind her.
Yasaka, the nine tailed fox of Kyoto glares down at the devil king with the kind of fury that only a mother afraid for her child can produce, "I find it insulting," The moment Yasaka speaks, whatever she's been doing to hide her presence vanishes, leaving me feeling like I somehow missed a bonfire right in front of me, "that you would come to my city without telling me." Mana floods the air, first from Yasaka herself, and then rising from the ground like a thick fog, "I find it angering, that you would attempt to recruit an under age member of my faction by taking advantage of possible recent trauma." The mana in the air is so thick that I can almost swim in it. My armor slowly refills my mana network in a way I haven't seen since the Genius Loci. The ambient mana is even thicker here though, "I FIND IT INFURIATING THAT YOU WOULD TRY SUCH ON MY DAUGHTER!"
Yasaka finishes her speech in a roar, and the entire feel of the station changes, like something immense is looking down on us with anger. Like the entire city just turned to glare at the devils.
The peerage members begin to shift uneasily and reach for weapons, readying themselves for a fight. Only to be short stopped as more Yokai appear literally out of thin air. A seven tailed kitsune with vibrant red hair and ears slaps a paper talisman onto the floating mortar, sending it crashing to the ground. The woman with the seal skin freezes in place with nothing more than a glare from the newly appeared seven tail.
The dwarf and minotaur are checked by a male and female pair of oni dressed in full samurai armor, and carrying a katana sized for them. These aren't the dumb muscled brutes that most oni appear to be. They carry their swords with the comfort and familiarity of years of brutal training, their expressions saying that they'd love to provide a demonstration of their hard earned skills. I'm not skilled in reading bovine facial expressions, but it certainly looks like the minotaur is somewhat shocked to find himself looking up at anybody.
The two devil knights are suddenly confronted by three men with long noses. Their white hair and beards give the impression of age. Age that doesn't fit with how they stand, and the hard athleticism of the physiques that show under their simple kimonos. Two of them carry swords, while the third leans negligently on a shakujo, the monks' staff that Mia had mentioned some of her kind prefer to swords. Elder tengu, warriors who have no doubt reached their age by being vastly better than everybody who's tried to kill them.
The devils might have tried to fight anyway, the belief in their own inherent superiority, or just an unnatural drive to protect their king, driving them forward. But then Yasaka growls. The support pillars on the platform shift just slightly, and the walls groan as layers upon layers of inscribed spellwork begins to glow on everything. Every wall and pillar, the floor, the ceiling, the tracks, even a train that passes through the station, glows with centuries of layered magic. A statement that no matter how superior the devils think themselves, Yasaka is at least a match for any devil but two, and even those two would hesitate to fight her in Kyoto itself.
The king slowly turns to see teeth in jaws that could consume him in one bite, belonging to a very angry nine tailed fox less than a foot away from him. That the fox would likely eat him in two bites just for the chance to bite him in half isn't lost on anybody.
The devil swallows, "My Lady, if I have offended in some way I most sincerely apologize." Oh no. He does not get to talk his way out of this. When I was nine I couldn't do anything about him.
Now? Not so much.
A pluck of an imaginary bowstring rips the devil off the stairs, and away from Yasaka. While he's still in the air I peel Shirone's grip off of me, careful not to hurt her. Before I even touch the ground, I telekinetically launch myself forward to meet the flying devil.
He hits the ground in the center of the platform, about halfway between his peerage and Kunou's protection detail. He lands with a crash, flopping gracelessly like a landed fish. I descend on him, drawing Sclamhaire in the air, and adding the power of my fall to my strike. I aim to bisect him with one blow, finish him before anybody has the chance to interfere.
Something I fail at, as a sickly green dome of energy snaps closed around the devil king just before Sclamhaire can reach him. The magic barrier doesn't slow Sclamhaire down much at all, it shatters with the first touch of her edge. The Devourer rips energy from the delicate balance that keeps the energy shield solid, and feeds it to me as mana.
Unfortunately, 'not much at all' is still some. It's only a moment, but that moment is enough for the devil to successfully scramble to his feet, only just avoiding where Sclamhaire bites into the concrete floor.
I rip her free of the ground as he whips his rapier up into what looks like a half decent guard position. I don't know a lot about rapier fighting, but there are some universal truths no matter your preferred form of combat. He's centered on the balls of his feet, has his sword covering most of his vulnerable spots, and can quickly get it in the way of the rest.
I take a quick glance at his peerage just to see if I'm going to have to figure out a way to deal with them as well, but they're all holding very still. Yasaka and her guards seem inclined to let me do what I want. Especially since the girl who had been riding the mortar is flopped out on the ground with a paper tag on her face. The woman with the seal skin has raised her hands and stepped back from the seven tailed fox woman, who's glaring at her with another paper tag ready in her hand.
Well then, it looks like I've got free rein.
I lunge forward, and the fight is on. To my only slight surprise the devil manages to deflect my first two swings, and on the third even manages a counter attack that I take on a pauldron. He clearly expects the lightning attached to his rapier to do something, and has an almost comical look of disappointment when it doesn't. I'm not sure how conductive the alloy of fae metal and soul is normally, but Sclamhaire drinks down each jolt, feeding me bits of power.
On the fourth exchange, when the rapier meets Sclamhaire's flat I twist her sharply to bring her edge to bear, and carve through the rapier feeling only a slight pull. The roughly three quarters of the rapier goes spinning through the air, and the king only barely avoids losing an arm in the same pass. He might have gotten away from Sclamhaire's edge, but that doesn't put him far enough away to avoid my follow up push kick.
My armor's boot hits the devil in the chest, launching him backwards, and laying him out flat on his back. I take a moment to make sure everybody else is still content to just watch, and it looks like the rest of his peerage is still locked down. Yasaka herself looks vaguely amused, if I'm reading the grin on her muzzle correctly. She's not moving in any case.
So, back to murder.
I leap forward in a high arc. Normally this would be stupid as hell, but sparring with Mia I've learned an appreciation for diving maneuvers. And while I don't have my own wings yet, I have learned some other tricks.
My mental bowstring thrums, and my trajectory goes from a pretty good parabolic arc, to a straight diagonal right at the king. He manages to narrowly avoid my foot stomping hard enough to crack the concrete where his chest had been before he rolled away. A further scramble lets him avoid Sclamhaire as well, when I take a swipe at him.
He makes it to his feet, and takes a few quick steps back as I advance on him at a casual pace. He's red faced, and more than slightly disheveled, and still holding onto the remains of his rapier.
"Enough!" He screams more than a little shrilly, "Pathetic mortal! I will not be shamed like this any further! Behold! The power of my ancestors!" Sharp white lines snap into existence around him, forming what looks almost like a line drawing of full covering Greek themed armor, "The Armor of Achilles! The Power of Destruction, Angelic Light spears, nothing can penetrate the power of..."
Sclamhaire hits the armor, and it shatters like glass.
The devil seems completely stunned, but he snaps out of it when I punch him in the side of the head as hard as I can. He hits the ground almost as hard, and starts trying to scramble away from me, even as his 'Armor of Achilles' reforms around him. I kick him in the ribs to flip him over, my armor not shattering his armor, unlike Sclamhaire, but that doesn't surprise me. My armor is nowhere near as... aggressive, as Sclamhaire is about what it consumes.
Stomping down on his chest now that he's facing up though, lets my armor absorb enough of the energy forming the Armor of Achilles that it shatters again. He starts to say something, but I stomp on him again, and feel more satisfaction than I probably should at the sound of his ribs cracking. It also keeps him from talking, which is the real goal.
Without pause or ceremony, I lift Sclamhaire, and plunge her downwards. She impales his skull, pinning his head to the floor. Death would have been almost instantaneous, and as painless as I can make it. I didn't do this for revenge, or a desire to torture him.
I'm just... removing a proven threat.
If I keep saying that often enough I might even start believing it.
I do feel like an enormous weight has lifted from me, though. Or maybe more like something I know has been stalking me for years, just out of sight, has vanished. Either way I'm left a little light headed, and feeling somewhat empty.
Sclamhaire comes out of his head, and the floor, as quickly and easily as she went in. I flick her off to the side, the little bit of blood attached to her blade is flung off. Nothing tends to stick to Sclamhaire, or my armor that I've noticed. I'm not quite sure why that is.
I take a look around. Mia and Tsubaki are where I left them. Mia's still in full armor, so no telling what she's thinking about. Tsubaki looks like she's in shock though, eyes wide and her jaw dropped a little bit. Shirone, good kitten that she is, has Kunou behind her, though the kit is peeking around her to watch the action. Neither seems upset by what just happened. Well Shirone looks a little concerned about me, but a quick nod seems to settle her.
On the opposite side of the platform are the former kings peerage, and the elite Youkai guarding them. I get a good look at their reactions as I head towards Yasaka, who's clearly the one in charge here. At this point the devils don't seem to have much fight left in them. The peerage looks even more poleaxed than Tsubaki does. The Youkai remain stoic, but all of them get out of my way as I approach the giant nine tailed fox.
The two oni samurai give me considering looks as I pass by them, and I get what I think is a nod of approval from one of the tengu. It only takes a moment for me to reach the steps where Yasaka sits. I pull down my hood and mask before bowing to the Youkai leader, "Lady, your daughter delivered intact and mostly unharmed. I think."
"Mostly?" Yasaka questions raising an eyebrow spot, "You think?"
I shrug, "We did have to fight a stray queen on the way here, and then there's all of this. If she was human I'd tell you to expect nightmares, as it is though?" I shrug again, "You'd know better than me what the consequences to her mental state might be, I just didn't want to assume."
The nine tailed fox nods, "Understandable. Rhostana-dono, this is the second time you have found and saved my daughter from those that would use her. We will have to speak about what form the necessary thanks will take. And I may have a commission for you as well."
I nod back, but the light headedness is beginning to get to me, "I'm more than happy to discuss both subjects with you, if you don't need me now, though?"
Yasaka eyes me for a moment then nods, "Take what time you need to compose yourself Rhostana-dono."
I bow again, and only narrowly avoid falling flat on my face as my light headedness edges towards dizziness. I manage to avoid embarrassing myself though, and move past Yasaka up the stairs and into the cool night air of Kyoto.
There are more Youkai out here, maintaining a barrier that's keeping the uninitiated away from this station. They largely ignore me though, and I find myself not quite sure what to do with myself. After a few moments just standing there, staring at nothing I decided to follow the hierarchy of needs.
And the first thing I need is a drink.
I've been staring at this coffee cup for almost twenty minutes, despite the fact that I don't drink coffee.
I mean really, when they say 'acquired taste' all I can hear is 'stockholm syndrome'.
This coffee is in a large clear glass mug though, and slowly becoming a lighter color as the cream I'd poured into it when I first got it, slowly mixes with the coffee. Something about my current state of mind combined with the slowly spreading cream is almost hypnotizing.
Just not thinking about anything for a little while is soothing.
At least until I almost jump out of my skin because somebody I didn't notice sits down across from me at my table. To my surprise it's somebody I actually know. Yasu, the Yuki Onna devil queen turned king in her own right, who's former king I'd just murdered.
I wonder if I'm about to get into another fight...?
"Toast?" Guess not. Yasu raises a glass of what looks like iced coffee. Heh, the Yuki Onna drinks iced coffee. I pick up my own glass and clink it to hers, before joining her in a drink.
I think I do excellently to not spit it out again. Coffee is disgusting at the best of times, lukewarm coffee is somehow even worse.
"Not angry? I did just kill your king." I have to ask, just to make sure.
She snorts letting out a little puff of frozen mist, "Decalan Eligos may have been my king, but getting powerful enough for my own peerage, and out from under his thumb, was the greatest day of my life."
"I do recall the two of you not getting along." I mutter pushing my cup away from me with the tip of a finger.
She nods, then frowns, "I knew when you summoned me that you remembered more than you should, but we never did discuss how much you remember, or how you remember at all."
There isn't exactly a question there, which is nice of her. She's telling me she wants to know, but isn't pressing me about it at all. I take a moment to examine her carefully. Really, we could almost be set up as mirrored opposites. Her literally snow white hair to my red/black, her pale skin to my Hawaiian tan, her ice blue eyes to my metallic gold. At least I don't feel hideous next to her any more, though her low cut tank top is showing her off better than my armor. At least I like to think that my... whatever I have is working for me as well as the almost royal elegance and grace she seems to display so casually, works for her.
I manage to avoid getting lost in her cleavage and decide to answer her implied question, "I had an impossibly consistent reaction every time I tried to think about the 'school shooting' that directed me to not think about it. Like the same thought and physical response every time, and there were so many inconsistencies with the idea of a school shooting I couldn't help but think about it a lot. Then I found the flier you gave me."
"How did you know what it was? If you didn't remember my giving it to you? An occult circle on a piece of paper decorated with naked girls seems like the kind of thing you'd just toss." She asked between listening to me and sipping on her drink.
"Well... You weren't the first encounter with the supernatural that I had," True even if I didn't know that Cait was more than a goth teen working a part time job at the time, "and I knew enough about myself even then that pictures of naked girls weren't an entirely unreasonable thing for me to have. On the other hand thanks to prior experience I knew what the flier was."
She raises an eyebrow at my casual reference to my sexuality, but just nods as I finish my explanation, "So you knew that you must have had an encounter with a devil that you couldn't remember."
"Yup. So once I knew that there was something there to find, I meditated and forced myself to go over every memory in detail, recreating what happened." I shrug, "It wasn't hard at that point to tell the difference between artificial memories and the real things once I found them."
"And you were what? Nine when you did this?" I nod and shrug again. She mutters something that sounds like 'impossible mortal', but continues speaking before I can ask about it, "Is that why you went after him so hard? That fight was clearly personal, which I can understand if you remember what the stray left behind in your school."
"Wouldn't I have spent more time trying to hurt him if I was going after him from personal anger?" I'm not really disagreeing with her, I'm mostly just trying to stall. Did my fighting look angry? Even to somebody who's never seen me fight before? I'll grant that I was way more emotional than I normally am in a fight. I didn't even do my normal analysis of my opponent. I always break down who and where I'm fighting before I start, but not this time.
God damn, I'm lucky the fight went how it did. I could have so easily missed something that could have made the fight go a different way in my an...
"If you were angry maybe," What? " but you were afraid."
...
Oh.
I slump in my seat and stare at my cup of now completely room temperature coffee, the milk now completely mixed with the coffee. My attention, though, wanders without my eyes following along. The world outside the coffee shop provides just enough background noise to paint a clear image to my sonar. The cars moving back and forth, people going about their business, or waiting just out of my sight lines from the windows.
Fuck it. Pua always says I need to talk more about what's bothering me, and this isn't really dangerous to talk about.
Maybe it will even be good for me.
"You know, ever since I discovered the supernatural, my greatest fear has been losing myself." Yasu looks confused, but I keep talking before she has the chance to say anything, "Either to mind control, or just manipulation, the idea of being somebody's puppet..." I shudder, "And then he comes along, and rewrites my existence for a day, makes me afraid where I hadn't been before. Ever since then he's been the face of my fears. Every nightmare I've had about getting caught and..." I can't finish the sentence and so instead just draw in a shuddering breath, "I had one entirely around him forcing me to be his new queen, and then making me kill my friends and family, and it was far from the only one like that."
"They don't work that way you know. The Evil Pieces?" Her voice is gentle, she's trying to be reassuring.
I appreciate the effort, but it's really not working.
I nod, "I know that's what they say, but there's plenty of examples that make me doubt that. Like that devil who collects nuns." Yasu grimaces, "Or just the way Riser Phenex's entire peerage seems perfectly willing to be used, and abused by him. Even if it's not outright mind control, the pieces are still coercive." My eyes are still stuck on my coffee cup, even though entropy has taken its course, and it's boring now. My fingers twist the cup back and forth, just so they have something to do. I can hear the two figures outside leaning closer to the window, "Once one of those pieces is in you, you're trapped, and your king holds your life in their hands. All they have to do is claim you're a stray, and they can kill you with impunity. That threat is hanging over your head, even if it's just implied by the circumstances, every time they tell you to do something." I shake my head, and wrench my thoughts back to the original topic, "So suddenly there's the face literally from my nightmares trying to coerce somebody I care about a great deal into his peerage. I... I couldn't let him go again. I've been planning how to kill him since I regained my memories, and suddenly the threat is right there in front of me?" I shake my head, finally looking at Yasu. She meets my eyes, and there's something there that looks like understanding, "I had to make the threat go away. I couldn't leave it out there any more."
For a long few moments we're quiet. After that though I break the silence, "You know, I think I'm supposed to feel worse, or guilty or something after that. Revenge isn't supposed to be a good thing you know? But, all I feel is relief. A weight I didn't even know I was carrying is gone, it was almost dizzying, and now? Now I feel free. What does that make me?"
Yasu smiles gently, "A person."
I snort.
It's a platitude.
But maybe an accurate one.
I sigh, and stand, "I should get going. Yasaka was nice enough to give me time to get my head on straight, but I really shouldn't keep the god fox waiting." I hesitate for a moment, "It was... nice seeing you again."
Yasu beams at me, and holds out a piece of paper. Taking it and looking it over, I find that it's a devil flier, almost exactly like the one she gave me all those years ago. Just minus the naked girls.
"Call me any time. Even if it's just to talk." She smiles at me. A simple happy smile.
She's really pretty.
"I just might do that." I smile back at her, carefully keeping myself from blushing.
I think this is the devil equivalent of getting a girl's number?
Would it be weird since she knew me when I was nine?
"What do you plan on doing now?" Yasu asks, with genuine curiosity.
I think about it for a moment, but the answer is actually kind of obvious to me with any thought at all, "I think I've earned a vacation. One where I don't have to fight anything, or learn anything. Something that's just purely fun."
And I think I know exactly where to find a safe place that will be nothing but fun if Serafall has anything to say about it.
And she does, being a Mao and all.
I shake my head, stuffing the flier into my armor skirt, and head out of the door waving once over my shoulder at Yasu as I leave. Stepping outside I take a deep breath of the Kyoto night air, "Well come on, diplomacy and foxes are waiting for us." I glance over my shoulder at where Mia and Tsubaki are against the wall of the shop, just out of sight from the window I'd been sitting next to.
Eavesdroppers.
"How long did you know we were there?" Tsubaki asks, but my only answer is a smug smirk and a shrug.
They fall in next to me, and we walk for silence for a bit. Tsubaki walks along with the same stately air that both she and Akeno share. I wonder if they had the same teacher? Mia on the other hand is now clearly off the clock. She still wears her armor, but is almost skipping along and grinning at every confused look we get from the civilians. Finally after several minutes, Mia can't keep quiet any more, "What do you think people think when they see us walking around all armored up like this?"
I grin to myself slightly, remembering asking myself that question last time I was in this city, "Cosplay."
They might be trying to say something, but I'm too consumed with burning rage to register anything. At least until he starts to speak.
"Princess Kunou!" He still talks like a brain damaged eighties superhero, "I am glad to see you arrive safely!" He sweeps his still sparking rapier up into a salute, "It must have been very frightening for you. I wish my peerage and I had managed to catch up to the stray before it could accost you, but alas we were too slow." He sweeps his sword down dramatically, and has an overdone look of sadness and contrition, "Now all I can do is offer you a place of safety, a place to grow so eventually you never need to be afraid of such beasts ever again. I want you princess... to be my queen!"
There's a moment of silence as he finishes his speech that he preens in slightly. None of us are really watching him though. As he talked, something that looked a lot like a heat shimmer appeared behind him. Slowly, just above the devil king on the steps, the air peeled back revealing a doubledecker bus sized golden fox. Nine long sinuous tails weaved a mesmerizing pattern behind her.
Yasaka, the nine tailed fox of Kyoto glares down at the devil king with the kind of fury that only a mother afraid for her child can produce, "I find it insulting," The moment Yasaka speaks, whatever she's been doing to hide her presence vanishes, leaving me feeling like I somehow missed a bonfire right in front of me, "that you would come to my city without telling me." Mana floods the air, first from Yasaka herself, and then rising from the ground like a thick fog, "I find it angering, that you would attempt to recruit an under age member of my faction by taking advantage of possible recent trauma." The mana in the air is so thick that I can almost swim in it. My armor slowly refills my mana network in a way I haven't seen since the Genius Loci. The ambient mana is even thicker here though, "I FIND IT INFURIATING THAT YOU WOULD TRY SUCH ON MY DAUGHTER!"
Yasaka finishes her speech in a roar, and the entire feel of the station changes, like something immense is looking down on us with anger. Like the entire city just turned to glare at the devils.
The peerage members begin to shift uneasily and reach for weapons, readying themselves for a fight. Only to be short stopped as more Yokai appear literally out of thin air. A seven tailed kitsune with vibrant red hair and ears slaps a paper talisman onto the floating mortar, sending it crashing to the ground. The woman with the seal skin freezes in place with nothing more than a glare from the newly appeared seven tail.
The dwarf and minotaur are checked by a male and female pair of oni dressed in full samurai armor, and carrying a katana sized for them. These aren't the dumb muscled brutes that most oni appear to be. They carry their swords with the comfort and familiarity of years of brutal training, their expressions saying that they'd love to provide a demonstration of their hard earned skills. I'm not skilled in reading bovine facial expressions, but it certainly looks like the minotaur is somewhat shocked to find himself looking up at anybody.
The two devil knights are suddenly confronted by three men with long noses. Their white hair and beards give the impression of age. Age that doesn't fit with how they stand, and the hard athleticism of the physiques that show under their simple kimonos. Two of them carry swords, while the third leans negligently on a shakujo, the monks' staff that Mia had mentioned some of her kind prefer to swords. Elder tengu, warriors who have no doubt reached their age by being vastly better than everybody who's tried to kill them.
The devils might have tried to fight anyway, the belief in their own inherent superiority, or just an unnatural drive to protect their king, driving them forward. But then Yasaka growls. The support pillars on the platform shift just slightly, and the walls groan as layers upon layers of inscribed spellwork begins to glow on everything. Every wall and pillar, the floor, the ceiling, the tracks, even a train that passes through the station, glows with centuries of layered magic. A statement that no matter how superior the devils think themselves, Yasaka is at least a match for any devil but two, and even those two would hesitate to fight her in Kyoto itself.
The king slowly turns to see teeth in jaws that could consume him in one bite, belonging to a very angry nine tailed fox less than a foot away from him. That the fox would likely eat him in two bites just for the chance to bite him in half isn't lost on anybody.
The devil swallows, "My Lady, if I have offended in some way I most sincerely apologize." Oh no. He does not get to talk his way out of this. When I was nine I couldn't do anything about him.
Now? Not so much.
A pluck of an imaginary bowstring rips the devil off the stairs, and away from Yasaka. While he's still in the air I peel Shirone's grip off of me, careful not to hurt her. Before I even touch the ground, I telekinetically launch myself forward to meet the flying devil.
He hits the ground in the center of the platform, about halfway between his peerage and Kunou's protection detail. He lands with a crash, flopping gracelessly like a landed fish. I descend on him, drawing Sclamhaire in the air, and adding the power of my fall to my strike. I aim to bisect him with one blow, finish him before anybody has the chance to interfere.
Something I fail at, as a sickly green dome of energy snaps closed around the devil king just before Sclamhaire can reach him. The magic barrier doesn't slow Sclamhaire down much at all, it shatters with the first touch of her edge. The Devourer rips energy from the delicate balance that keeps the energy shield solid, and feeds it to me as mana.
Unfortunately, 'not much at all' is still some. It's only a moment, but that moment is enough for the devil to successfully scramble to his feet, only just avoiding where Sclamhaire bites into the concrete floor.
I rip her free of the ground as he whips his rapier up into what looks like a half decent guard position. I don't know a lot about rapier fighting, but there are some universal truths no matter your preferred form of combat. He's centered on the balls of his feet, has his sword covering most of his vulnerable spots, and can quickly get it in the way of the rest.
I take a quick glance at his peerage just to see if I'm going to have to figure out a way to deal with them as well, but they're all holding very still. Yasaka and her guards seem inclined to let me do what I want. Especially since the girl who had been riding the mortar is flopped out on the ground with a paper tag on her face. The woman with the seal skin has raised her hands and stepped back from the seven tailed fox woman, who's glaring at her with another paper tag ready in her hand.
Well then, it looks like I've got free rein.
I lunge forward, and the fight is on. To my only slight surprise the devil manages to deflect my first two swings, and on the third even manages a counter attack that I take on a pauldron. He clearly expects the lightning attached to his rapier to do something, and has an almost comical look of disappointment when it doesn't. I'm not sure how conductive the alloy of fae metal and soul is normally, but Sclamhaire drinks down each jolt, feeding me bits of power.
On the fourth exchange, when the rapier meets Sclamhaire's flat I twist her sharply to bring her edge to bear, and carve through the rapier feeling only a slight pull. The roughly three quarters of the rapier goes spinning through the air, and the king only barely avoids losing an arm in the same pass. He might have gotten away from Sclamhaire's edge, but that doesn't put him far enough away to avoid my follow up push kick.
My armor's boot hits the devil in the chest, launching him backwards, and laying him out flat on his back. I take a moment to make sure everybody else is still content to just watch, and it looks like the rest of his peerage is still locked down. Yasaka herself looks vaguely amused, if I'm reading the grin on her muzzle correctly. She's not moving in any case.
So, back to murder.
I leap forward in a high arc. Normally this would be stupid as hell, but sparring with Mia I've learned an appreciation for diving maneuvers. And while I don't have my own wings yet, I have learned some other tricks.
My mental bowstring thrums, and my trajectory goes from a pretty good parabolic arc, to a straight diagonal right at the king. He manages to narrowly avoid my foot stomping hard enough to crack the concrete where his chest had been before he rolled away. A further scramble lets him avoid Sclamhaire as well, when I take a swipe at him.
He makes it to his feet, and takes a few quick steps back as I advance on him at a casual pace. He's red faced, and more than slightly disheveled, and still holding onto the remains of his rapier.
"Enough!" He screams more than a little shrilly, "Pathetic mortal! I will not be shamed like this any further! Behold! The power of my ancestors!" Sharp white lines snap into existence around him, forming what looks almost like a line drawing of full covering Greek themed armor, "The Armor of Achilles! The Power of Destruction, Angelic Light spears, nothing can penetrate the power of..."
Sclamhaire hits the armor, and it shatters like glass.
The devil seems completely stunned, but he snaps out of it when I punch him in the side of the head as hard as I can. He hits the ground almost as hard, and starts trying to scramble away from me, even as his 'Armor of Achilles' reforms around him. I kick him in the ribs to flip him over, my armor not shattering his armor, unlike Sclamhaire, but that doesn't surprise me. My armor is nowhere near as... aggressive, as Sclamhaire is about what it consumes.
Stomping down on his chest now that he's facing up though, lets my armor absorb enough of the energy forming the Armor of Achilles that it shatters again. He starts to say something, but I stomp on him again, and feel more satisfaction than I probably should at the sound of his ribs cracking. It also keeps him from talking, which is the real goal.
Without pause or ceremony, I lift Sclamhaire, and plunge her downwards. She impales his skull, pinning his head to the floor. Death would have been almost instantaneous, and as painless as I can make it. I didn't do this for revenge, or a desire to torture him.
I'm just... removing a proven threat.
If I keep saying that often enough I might even start believing it.
I do feel like an enormous weight has lifted from me, though. Or maybe more like something I know has been stalking me for years, just out of sight, has vanished. Either way I'm left a little light headed, and feeling somewhat empty.
Sclamhaire comes out of his head, and the floor, as quickly and easily as she went in. I flick her off to the side, the little bit of blood attached to her blade is flung off. Nothing tends to stick to Sclamhaire, or my armor that I've noticed. I'm not quite sure why that is.
I take a look around. Mia and Tsubaki are where I left them. Mia's still in full armor, so no telling what she's thinking about. Tsubaki looks like she's in shock though, eyes wide and her jaw dropped a little bit. Shirone, good kitten that she is, has Kunou behind her, though the kit is peeking around her to watch the action. Neither seems upset by what just happened. Well Shirone looks a little concerned about me, but a quick nod seems to settle her.
On the opposite side of the platform are the former kings peerage, and the elite Youkai guarding them. I get a good look at their reactions as I head towards Yasaka, who's clearly the one in charge here. At this point the devils don't seem to have much fight left in them. The peerage looks even more poleaxed than Tsubaki does. The Youkai remain stoic, but all of them get out of my way as I approach the giant nine tailed fox.
The two oni samurai give me considering looks as I pass by them, and I get what I think is a nod of approval from one of the tengu. It only takes a moment for me to reach the steps where Yasaka sits. I pull down my hood and mask before bowing to the Youkai leader, "Lady, your daughter delivered intact and mostly unharmed. I think."
"Mostly?" Yasaka questions raising an eyebrow spot, "You think?"
I shrug, "We did have to fight a stray queen on the way here, and then there's all of this. If she was human I'd tell you to expect nightmares, as it is though?" I shrug again, "You'd know better than me what the consequences to her mental state might be, I just didn't want to assume."
The nine tailed fox nods, "Understandable. Rhostana-dono, this is the second time you have found and saved my daughter from those that would use her. We will have to speak about what form the necessary thanks will take. And I may have a commission for you as well."
I nod back, but the light headedness is beginning to get to me, "I'm more than happy to discuss both subjects with you, if you don't need me now, though?"
Yasaka eyes me for a moment then nods, "Take what time you need to compose yourself Rhostana-dono."
I bow again, and only narrowly avoid falling flat on my face as my light headedness edges towards dizziness. I manage to avoid embarrassing myself though, and move past Yasaka up the stairs and into the cool night air of Kyoto.
There are more Youkai out here, maintaining a barrier that's keeping the uninitiated away from this station. They largely ignore me though, and I find myself not quite sure what to do with myself. After a few moments just standing there, staring at nothing I decided to follow the hierarchy of needs.
And the first thing I need is a drink.
###
I've been staring at this coffee cup for almost twenty minutes, despite the fact that I don't drink coffee.
I mean really, when they say 'acquired taste' all I can hear is 'stockholm syndrome'.
This coffee is in a large clear glass mug though, and slowly becoming a lighter color as the cream I'd poured into it when I first got it, slowly mixes with the coffee. Something about my current state of mind combined with the slowly spreading cream is almost hypnotizing.
Just not thinking about anything for a little while is soothing.
At least until I almost jump out of my skin because somebody I didn't notice sits down across from me at my table. To my surprise it's somebody I actually know. Yasu, the Yuki Onna devil queen turned king in her own right, who's former king I'd just murdered.
I wonder if I'm about to get into another fight...?
"Toast?" Guess not. Yasu raises a glass of what looks like iced coffee. Heh, the Yuki Onna drinks iced coffee. I pick up my own glass and clink it to hers, before joining her in a drink.
I think I do excellently to not spit it out again. Coffee is disgusting at the best of times, lukewarm coffee is somehow even worse.
"Not angry? I did just kill your king." I have to ask, just to make sure.
She snorts letting out a little puff of frozen mist, "Decalan Eligos may have been my king, but getting powerful enough for my own peerage, and out from under his thumb, was the greatest day of my life."
"I do recall the two of you not getting along." I mutter pushing my cup away from me with the tip of a finger.
She nods, then frowns, "I knew when you summoned me that you remembered more than you should, but we never did discuss how much you remember, or how you remember at all."
There isn't exactly a question there, which is nice of her. She's telling me she wants to know, but isn't pressing me about it at all. I take a moment to examine her carefully. Really, we could almost be set up as mirrored opposites. Her literally snow white hair to my red/black, her pale skin to my Hawaiian tan, her ice blue eyes to my metallic gold. At least I don't feel hideous next to her any more, though her low cut tank top is showing her off better than my armor. At least I like to think that my... whatever I have is working for me as well as the almost royal elegance and grace she seems to display so casually, works for her.
I manage to avoid getting lost in her cleavage and decide to answer her implied question, "I had an impossibly consistent reaction every time I tried to think about the 'school shooting' that directed me to not think about it. Like the same thought and physical response every time, and there were so many inconsistencies with the idea of a school shooting I couldn't help but think about it a lot. Then I found the flier you gave me."
"How did you know what it was? If you didn't remember my giving it to you? An occult circle on a piece of paper decorated with naked girls seems like the kind of thing you'd just toss." She asked between listening to me and sipping on her drink.
"Well... You weren't the first encounter with the supernatural that I had," True even if I didn't know that Cait was more than a goth teen working a part time job at the time, "and I knew enough about myself even then that pictures of naked girls weren't an entirely unreasonable thing for me to have. On the other hand thanks to prior experience I knew what the flier was."
She raises an eyebrow at my casual reference to my sexuality, but just nods as I finish my explanation, "So you knew that you must have had an encounter with a devil that you couldn't remember."
"Yup. So once I knew that there was something there to find, I meditated and forced myself to go over every memory in detail, recreating what happened." I shrug, "It wasn't hard at that point to tell the difference between artificial memories and the real things once I found them."
"And you were what? Nine when you did this?" I nod and shrug again. She mutters something that sounds like 'impossible mortal', but continues speaking before I can ask about it, "Is that why you went after him so hard? That fight was clearly personal, which I can understand if you remember what the stray left behind in your school."
"Wouldn't I have spent more time trying to hurt him if I was going after him from personal anger?" I'm not really disagreeing with her, I'm mostly just trying to stall. Did my fighting look angry? Even to somebody who's never seen me fight before? I'll grant that I was way more emotional than I normally am in a fight. I didn't even do my normal analysis of my opponent. I always break down who and where I'm fighting before I start, but not this time.
God damn, I'm lucky the fight went how it did. I could have so easily missed something that could have made the fight go a different way in my an...
"If you were angry maybe," What? " but you were afraid."
...
Oh.
I slump in my seat and stare at my cup of now completely room temperature coffee, the milk now completely mixed with the coffee. My attention, though, wanders without my eyes following along. The world outside the coffee shop provides just enough background noise to paint a clear image to my sonar. The cars moving back and forth, people going about their business, or waiting just out of my sight lines from the windows.
Fuck it. Pua always says I need to talk more about what's bothering me, and this isn't really dangerous to talk about.
Maybe it will even be good for me.
"You know, ever since I discovered the supernatural, my greatest fear has been losing myself." Yasu looks confused, but I keep talking before she has the chance to say anything, "Either to mind control, or just manipulation, the idea of being somebody's puppet..." I shudder, "And then he comes along, and rewrites my existence for a day, makes me afraid where I hadn't been before. Ever since then he's been the face of my fears. Every nightmare I've had about getting caught and..." I can't finish the sentence and so instead just draw in a shuddering breath, "I had one entirely around him forcing me to be his new queen, and then making me kill my friends and family, and it was far from the only one like that."
"They don't work that way you know. The Evil Pieces?" Her voice is gentle, she's trying to be reassuring.
I appreciate the effort, but it's really not working.
I nod, "I know that's what they say, but there's plenty of examples that make me doubt that. Like that devil who collects nuns." Yasu grimaces, "Or just the way Riser Phenex's entire peerage seems perfectly willing to be used, and abused by him. Even if it's not outright mind control, the pieces are still coercive." My eyes are still stuck on my coffee cup, even though entropy has taken its course, and it's boring now. My fingers twist the cup back and forth, just so they have something to do. I can hear the two figures outside leaning closer to the window, "Once one of those pieces is in you, you're trapped, and your king holds your life in their hands. All they have to do is claim you're a stray, and they can kill you with impunity. That threat is hanging over your head, even if it's just implied by the circumstances, every time they tell you to do something." I shake my head, and wrench my thoughts back to the original topic, "So suddenly there's the face literally from my nightmares trying to coerce somebody I care about a great deal into his peerage. I... I couldn't let him go again. I've been planning how to kill him since I regained my memories, and suddenly the threat is right there in front of me?" I shake my head, finally looking at Yasu. She meets my eyes, and there's something there that looks like understanding, "I had to make the threat go away. I couldn't leave it out there any more."
For a long few moments we're quiet. After that though I break the silence, "You know, I think I'm supposed to feel worse, or guilty or something after that. Revenge isn't supposed to be a good thing you know? But, all I feel is relief. A weight I didn't even know I was carrying is gone, it was almost dizzying, and now? Now I feel free. What does that make me?"
Yasu smiles gently, "A person."
I snort.
It's a platitude.
But maybe an accurate one.
I sigh, and stand, "I should get going. Yasaka was nice enough to give me time to get my head on straight, but I really shouldn't keep the god fox waiting." I hesitate for a moment, "It was... nice seeing you again."
Yasu beams at me, and holds out a piece of paper. Taking it and looking it over, I find that it's a devil flier, almost exactly like the one she gave me all those years ago. Just minus the naked girls.
"Call me any time. Even if it's just to talk." She smiles at me. A simple happy smile.
She's really pretty.
"I just might do that." I smile back at her, carefully keeping myself from blushing.
I think this is the devil equivalent of getting a girl's number?
Would it be weird since she knew me when I was nine?
"What do you plan on doing now?" Yasu asks, with genuine curiosity.
I think about it for a moment, but the answer is actually kind of obvious to me with any thought at all, "I think I've earned a vacation. One where I don't have to fight anything, or learn anything. Something that's just purely fun."
And I think I know exactly where to find a safe place that will be nothing but fun if Serafall has anything to say about it.
And she does, being a Mao and all.
I shake my head, stuffing the flier into my armor skirt, and head out of the door waving once over my shoulder at Yasu as I leave. Stepping outside I take a deep breath of the Kyoto night air, "Well come on, diplomacy and foxes are waiting for us." I glance over my shoulder at where Mia and Tsubaki are against the wall of the shop, just out of sight from the window I'd been sitting next to.
Eavesdroppers.
"How long did you know we were there?" Tsubaki asks, but my only answer is a smug smirk and a shrug.
They fall in next to me, and we walk for silence for a bit. Tsubaki walks along with the same stately air that both she and Akeno share. I wonder if they had the same teacher? Mia on the other hand is now clearly off the clock. She still wears her armor, but is almost skipping along and grinning at every confused look we get from the civilians. Finally after several minutes, Mia can't keep quiet any more, "What do you think people think when they see us walking around all armored up like this?"
I grin to myself slightly, remembering asking myself that question last time I was in this city, "Cosplay."
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Yesss magical girl showww.
Shame a lot of it'll probably be skipped over for pacing reasons. Even if we get to see the finished product, or bits and pieces of the process, even the smaller moments would be incredible. Like, what kind of people would it take to write for that show? What about the director? They have to tell a Mao what to do, so presumably they have nerves of steel. How much is it going to be Erica's character, and how much actually just her? What about magic abilities? Are devils gonna be impressed by her capabilities with script?
It's all fascinating, but it's not gonna be answered 😟
Unless...
TV arc?
Shame a lot of it'll probably be skipped over for pacing reasons. Even if we get to see the finished product, or bits and pieces of the process, even the smaller moments would be incredible. Like, what kind of people would it take to write for that show? What about the director? They have to tell a Mao what to do, so presumably they have nerves of steel. How much is it going to be Erica's character, and how much actually just her? What about magic abilities? Are devils gonna be impressed by her capabilities with script?
It's all fascinating, but it's not gonna be answered 😟
Unless...
TV arc?
Book 1 Interlude - A Devilish Perspective
- Location
- California
Not for the first time in her life, Yasu cursed her king... former king. And wasn't that just the best thing that had ever happened. When she'd heard about the exceptionally talented young two-tailed fox, traveling with minimal escort... well she'd been Decalan's queen for more than a century, she knew exactly how he'd respond.
Never mind the fact that a kitsune that talented would be a treasure to the Yokai, and the small number of guards must mean that they didn't need numbers. So her k... former king, was leading her former peerage into what was probably more than they could handle, and then said former king would open his mouth, and make it worse.
Which is how she found herself sneaking, as quickly as she could, down a subway tunnel. If she had her way, she'd slip in, beat her ex, ex-king about the head and shoulders until he agreed to what she wanted, and then lead them all back down the tunnel. Ideally without the Yokai ever knowing they were there.
It, again, wouldn't be the first time.
Unfortunately when she arrived at the platform in question, she found it already much too late.
"I FIND IT INFURIATING THAT YOU WOULD TRY SUCH ON MY DAUGHTER!" Yasu flinched at the sound of the angry roar. And flinched again as the legendary, and usually quiescent wards and enchantments that were worked into every stone, tree, pour of concrete, and structural I-beam of Kyoto, flared to terrible life a moment later. She didn't breathe until they faded and quieted again moments later.
Carefully, the yuki onna pressed herself against the edge of the platform, and peeked over the top to see what was going on.
It was about as bad as she feared.
Her former peerage had each been checked by figures that she had grown up hearing stories about. Yasu had been born in Kyoto, and grown up in the Yokai forest, she knew exactly who these people were.
The two bishops, Lada Yaga, Baba's descendant, and Talulla the selkie, have been effectively shut down by Akemi Seven-Tail, the kitsune who'd been the primary instructor of magic for the rulers of Kyoto for far longer than her mere seven tails should indicate. How she had lived for so long without gaining her last two nobody knew. Though some thought that she actually had far more tails than she should, and simply knew how to hide them, allowing her to avoid any consideration for Yasaka's position.
The Rooks, Dalgan the dwarf and Gaios minotaur, had come face to face with Akuma and Kanayama. A married pair of oni that had been born with an unusual amount of intelligence and blood lust for their kind. Fortunately, they also had an even more unusual amount of discipline. The combination drove them to heights of skill in killing that made anybody who knew about them uncomfortable in their presence. The only exceptions were people who knew the oni posed no threat to them. A very small number of people. The story went that the two oni rampaged through Japan, and refused to bow to anybody that could not defeat them. Yasaka's grandmother was the one who ended up bringing them into the fold, sending champions to defeat them both. Afterwards they had become the most feared pair of enforcers in the Ninetails arsenal.
The knights, Mara the nightmare and Shadow the tulpa, had been surrounded by three members of the Kuro, or the Nine Sons. The brotherhood of nine tengu that had taught Musashi the art of the sword, and had been undefeated since long before that. In fact it had been only one of the Kuro that had brought the oni couple low. Now there were three of them here.
Somebody who didn't know who they were might have thought that the positioning of the Kuro around the knights were just a threat to the knights. Yasu knew better though, they weren't surrounding the knights, they were in the middle of the peerage. A threat to everything around them.
Swallowing hard at the sight, Yasu wondered who the hell this two-tail was, to make not only Yasaka herself put in an appearance, but bring a collection of the most powerful Yokai alive to the party as well.
Then she remembered what Yasaka had roared when she arrived. Her idiot king, former king, had tried to replace her with Yasaka's own daughter? If they made it out of this alive, she was going to have to tell Decalan's mother exactly what he was getting up to without supervision. How Decalan had managed to convince her normally very canny mother to let him find a new queen himself, Yasu had no idea. He certainly hadn't been allowed to put together the peerage originally.
Still, given how the wind was blowing, Yasu decided that it might be best to just stay hidden as well as she could, and wait for things to calm down. Then she'd do what she could to get as many of her former peerage out alive as possible.
"My Lady, if I have offended in some way I most sincerely apologize." Decalan started smoothly. And for a moment, Yasu had hope that things wouldn't get any worse. Decalan had always been a smooth talker, it's a talent that's gotten him out of at least as many problems as it'd gotten him in to. Though those weren't always the same problems.
So wasn't unfathomable that he could talk his way free of this too.
Then some invisible force ripped him off the steps, and sent him flying through the air to the middle of the open space between... Between the two groups on the platform. How had she forgotten that there was another group of people there?
She looked quickly and spotted two devils in schoolgirl uniforms, one of which looked to have been reincarnated from a nekoshou. A tengu in the standard armor of Yasaka's guard. And of course the little two tailed kitsune hiding behind the nekoshou.
The nekoshou was staggering back from something, but none of them seemed to be responsible for her king, former king's, sudden movement. So Yasu turned her eye back to Decalan, only to see a fifth figure fall from the sky right where the devil king was recovering on the ground.
Yasu wasn't quite sure what to make of the fifth figure. They wore dark black armor, their legs were covered in a nearly floor length skirt of light cloth, and instead of a helmet there was a hood of the same cloth. A hood that when Yasu got a brief glimpse inside of it, seemed to be empty.
The sword, though, is what really demanded attention. Yasu wasn't even really sure that it was a sword in any physical sense. It wasn't just colored black, but seemed more like a cut out in the world, like an absence more than a presence. Except for the iridescent runes that ran down the blade. Runes that the former queen had to admit she didn't recognize in the slightest.
Runes that flared brighter when the blade carved through a barrier that tried to protect Decalan like it wasn't there. Which was worrying, to be quite honest, because that was Lada's magic, and the heir to the Witch of the Woods should not be as weak as that showing made her appear.
Instead of what should happen though, Yasu watched as the blade carved through the magic dome, then the floor, and only moments later Decalan's magic sword. Apparently entirely unfazed by the lightning magic on the devils rapier, which should have barbecued whoever was in that much metal armor. Which was just...
Yasu had simply stopped trying to make sense of what she was seeing, and instead just watched it happen. She tried to commit as much of the events to memory as possible so she could review it later when the shocks stopped coming.
That idea ended when the Armor of Achilles shattered like it was made of spun sugar, instead of the theoretically impervious spiritual might that it had always been. The perfect topper to the evening, was when that impossibly black sword pinned her king's, former king's, head to the ground like a butterfly on display.
Yasu wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.
She had never liked Decalan, his pompous self righteous attitude combined with his delusions of competence made liking him hard. Especially when she was the one always cleaning up the messes he left behind. Still, he hadn't been a bad king as things go. The yuki onna had certainly heard of and seen worse examples.
Lada would take it hard though. She was the only member of the peerage who had joined because of Decalan, instead of in spite of him. Yasu had never been sure if there was genuine emotion on Decalan's part, but she also knew that Lada was convinced there was.
Something to look out for.
Idly, she wondered how many of the peerage she could convince to join her. She liked most of them. Well, Shadow didn't really have much of a personality, and Mara wasn't really used to communicating verbally, having been incapable of it before she became a devil. But those were hardly problems, really.
Even while she was thinking, she was still watching the warrior who'd put down her now very former king. The figure walked towards Yasaka, getting looks from the Yokai elite that said that they maybe saw something in that fight that Yasu had missed.
When the armored figure pulled down their hood and mask to reveal themselves, Yasu was surprised for several reasons. First the figure was female. Most of the time supernatural women dressed to show themselves off, either to distract their male opponents, or just as a form of bragging. Even when they didn't, Yasu had never heard of a woman who dressed to completely hide her gender.
Second, Yasu still couldn't figure out what this person was. She wasn't a devil, there was no sign of devil power on her. She wasn't an angel of any sort for the same reason. Some part of her felt just slightly vampiric, but that was impossible because she also felt something like nature. The way a Sage felt while holding the energy of the world. So she couldn't be a vampire, that natural energy was thoroughly antithetical to the decidedly unnatural vampires. It didn't make any sense. Human was right out, humans aren't that pretty, and can't do any of the things she just watched this stranger do.
The last confusing part of the mystery figure was that she looked tantalizingly, hauntingly familiar. Which was just bizarre because Yasu is certain that she'd remember running into somebody like this.
The stranger and Yasaka conversed, and Yasu just caught the name 'Rhostana-dono'. It said something that Yasaka would refer to this woman as a noble, not an equal but highly placed. Which just confused things even more.
And why did the name Rhostana sound so familiar?
It took a moment for Yasu's mind to work through the shock, but when she did her jaw hit the ground. That was the human girl who'd destroyed her own eyes experimenting with magic? The girl who'd flatly refused the offer to become a devil to stay human? The child she'd tried to recruit so many years ago only to have Decalan ruin... it.. all...
Suddenly this made a whole lot more sense. Somehow the girl remembered the incident in her school. If she remembered the damage done, and the classmates lost, the way she went after Decalan made a lot more sense. She probably blamed him by some twist of logic, for everything that had happened back then. And if that was her introduction to the supernatural...
Well...
"Now maybe we can deal with our last guest?" Yasaka's voice cut through Yasu's musing, causing her to sigh. Not being noticed was basically a dream once she'd seen which Yokai had arrived. Still she'd have liked to introduce herself differently.
Without hesitating, Yasu pulled herself onto the platform, and headed over to where everybody was gathering. The little fox's tengu guard shadow-stepped the kit next to her mother, where the child latched onto her mother's leg, and sat on a paw bigger than she was. The peerage was excited to see her, even as they were pushed to one side to allow her to approach Yasaka.
Reaching the foot of the stairs Yasu stopped and bowed, "Lady Yasaka."
"What brings you here, devil?" The huge fox asked, her entirely human voice incongruous with her current shape.
She spoke without rising from her bow, "I had heard from various sources that a young kitsune would be traveling a fair distance with minimal escort. The thing is that my sources are, were, also his sources." Yasu waved a hand at where her former king's corpse was still cooling on the ground, "I was his queen for more than a century, I knew exactly what he'd do with this information. I came to try and keep him from doing anything stupid." She glanced back at the body without rising, "Clearly I didn't make it in time."
"Clearly." Yasaka agreed, dryly.
Yasaka was about to dismiss them and leave, when Yasu managed to speak up, "My lady?" Yasaka turned her attention back to the yuki onna, not saying anything, but the invitation to speak came with her attention. "Um... may I speak with the peerage? I know they'll have to be extradited, but none of them really had a choice about being here. They know me, and I'd like to help them if I can."
Yasaka considered for a moment, then nodded, before turning to leave with her kit. The guards she brought stayed behind, surrounding the peerage that had been herded into one group off to the side, while their former queen and Yasaka talked. The guards stayed far enough back though to grant at least the illusion of privacy.
Yasu joined the peerage, and was welcomed like the old friend she was. Gruff greetings, back slaps, getting nosed by Mara, and Talulla even hugged her. The smell of ocean that clung to her oddly soothing. The only one who didn't greet her was Lada, the bishop apparently still in shock.
Finally, all greetings done, Mara asked the question they were all thinking, "Yasu, what was that?"
Yasu sighed, and scrubbed her face with her hands, "That was old foolishness coming back to bite Decalan in the neck."
"You know who that was?" Gaios rumbled, even as he continued to keep an eye on the two oni watching them.
"You do too," Yasu told them. "You remember Decalan and I got into a fight about him being too free with memory alterations?"
Talulla was the one that got it first, "That was the girl you were trying to recruit?" The selkie asked, her Irish accent coming through thickly, "I really wish you'd managed."
"I really want to know what she is now. 'Cause she ain't no devil." Dalgan groused and spat to the side, which drew thunderous expressions from the oni, and amusement from the tengu. Yasu would have told him to stop antagonizing the guards, but he'd never listened to her about it before, why would he start now?
"I have no idea. But I doubt any recruitment is possible now. She threw off the hypnosis that Decalan put on her, somehow. She remembers everything that happened that day." Yasu told them. It caused most of the peerage to pause, looking sympathetic. Some looked understanding. Again the only one not to respond was Lada, which was beginning to make Yasu worry.
"No wonder she's pissed." Talulla muttered. Though as soon as the selkie said it, it rang false to Yasu. Now that she thought about it, Ericka had fought with short and choppy motions. The grace that somebody as skilled as Ericka clearly was, nowhere in evidence. Yasu considered the way she'd had to stop and check what was going on around her like she couldn't keep track of the fight, and her surroundings at the same time, how hard she'd been breathing when the fight was done. Maybe she was reading too much into things, but that didn't add up to anger to her.
"Do you know who she joined?" Gaios asked, "What she's become?"
"She's human." The tengu guard that had been with the fox princess, spoke up, "Quite insistent about it really. She nearly threw down with one of the peerages in Kuoh, when they pushed the idea of joining a little too hard."
Yasu blinked, trying to make sense of things, not the least of which when the guard had gotten so close to them. The rest of the peerage seemed to be in a similar state of confusion.
"Mortal's cann'a do what we just saw." Dalgan growled just loud enough to hear.
"It's just not possible." Lada murmured, though whether she was agreeing with the dwarf or simply in denial was impossible to tell.
The tengu guard shrugged, "Impossible Mortal is a good description of her."
Yasu shook her head. It was something for her to pursue later. For now she started talking to her former peerage about their future. Most of them agreed to join up with her. The only one who didn't was Lada.
"I can't believe you people!" Lada snapped when she finally came out of her daze, "Our king," She let out a soft sob, "is dead. His murderer is out there and you're talking about..." The bishop waved a hand at them apparently too angry to speak, "We should be talking about vengeance!"
Nobody moved. "Lada," Yasu said slowly, "She just kicked Decalan's ass. Who despite being a self-entitled idiot was still more powerful than any of us."
"But not more powerful than all of us together." Lada said feverishly, her eyes wide and manic, "Together we could..."
"Do nothing. Especially not when surrounded by Yokai guards who are obviously her allies." Yasu stared the witch down, making sure she was being listened to before continuing, "Besides, at the moment she has nothing against us, at least she had no issue using my flyer. I doubt we'll get her to join any time soon, but we might be able to make her an ally if we don't do something to piss her off. In time who knows?" She glared at Lada, "Anybody have any problems with that?" The Russian witch started to speak, only to stop at Yasu's raised hand, "Anybody else have any problems with that?"
The rest of what she still hoped to make her peerage, shook their heads, but it was Dalgan who gave voice to what they were all thinking, "I don't think any of us have any problems with making the 'Impossible Mortal' an ally. Certainly better than the other option."
Finding where Ericka had gone wasn't hard. There were Yokai guards everywhere, and Yasu had kept in enough contact with her people that the Yokai were still largely willing to talk to her, current status as a devil or not. So she was directed quickly enough to a coffee shop kitty corner from the subway entrance.
Stepping inside the coffee shop was a shock. A stark reminder that no matter how serious her own issues were, the world went on without her. The people inside went about their business blissfully unaware of what had almost happened, almost underneath their feet.
Which was understandable. The supernatural went through a lot of effort to keep the mundane world unaware of what they were up to.
What made less sense, was how everybody seemed to utterly miss the heavily armed and armored woman who was sitting in a window booth, looking shell shocked.
Was this her first kill?
That seemed... unlikely.
Yasu quickly ordered her own drink and headed to Ericka's table. The woman seemed totally out of it, so the yuki onna invited herself to sit. Something that evidently took her table mate by surprise, as Ericka started and tensed in a slightly worrying fashion, given recent events.
Yasu's thoughts scrambled. She needed to say something quickly that would indicate that not only was she not here for violence, but that she wholeheartedly approved of Decalan's death.
After only a moment the answer came to her, and she raised her glass, "Toast?"
Ericka blinked once then raised her glass and clinked it against Yasu's before taking a drink and grimacing.
"Not angry? I did just kill your king." The impossible mortal asked, just a hint of caution coloring her tone.
Yasu snorted letting out a little puff of frozen mist, "Decalan Eligos may have been my king, but getting powerful enough for my own peerage, and out from under his thumb, was the greatest day of my life."
"I do recall the two of you not getting along." Ericka muttered, fidgeting adorably with her apparently unwanted drink.
Yasu nodded, then frowned, and decided to see if she could get an answer to one of her long standing questions. It just had to be asked carefully. Ericka was already on edge, and the last thing the devil wanted to do was push her into being defensive, "I knew when you summoned me that you remembered more than you should, but we never did discuss how much you remember, or how you remember at all."
Ericka studied her carefully, looking for something, and clearly deep in thought. After a tense few moments the other woman sighed, and began to explain in a clinical fashion that she'd had an impossible degree of self awareness as a small child. Also unprecedented mental discipline, since she apparently undid devilish hypnosis by thinking about it really hard.
It occurred to Yasu, as Ericka explained her past, that she was looking at a woman that discovered the supernatural at a very young age, and discovered that it would chew her up and spit her out if given half a chance. But instead of going into denial, or cowering, or joining the supernatural for protection, Ericka looked back at the literal monsters of legend and said, 'Not if I get you first.'
This sounded like the kind of girl that the yuki onna wanted to keep in touch with.
As Ericka left Yasu wondered, if she survived long enough, how many satans, dragons, and gods Ericka would 'get first'.
Never mind the fact that a kitsune that talented would be a treasure to the Yokai, and the small number of guards must mean that they didn't need numbers. So her k... former king, was leading her former peerage into what was probably more than they could handle, and then said former king would open his mouth, and make it worse.
Which is how she found herself sneaking, as quickly as she could, down a subway tunnel. If she had her way, she'd slip in, beat her ex, ex-king about the head and shoulders until he agreed to what she wanted, and then lead them all back down the tunnel. Ideally without the Yokai ever knowing they were there.
It, again, wouldn't be the first time.
Unfortunately when she arrived at the platform in question, she found it already much too late.
"I FIND IT INFURIATING THAT YOU WOULD TRY SUCH ON MY DAUGHTER!" Yasu flinched at the sound of the angry roar. And flinched again as the legendary, and usually quiescent wards and enchantments that were worked into every stone, tree, pour of concrete, and structural I-beam of Kyoto, flared to terrible life a moment later. She didn't breathe until they faded and quieted again moments later.
Carefully, the yuki onna pressed herself against the edge of the platform, and peeked over the top to see what was going on.
It was about as bad as she feared.
Her former peerage had each been checked by figures that she had grown up hearing stories about. Yasu had been born in Kyoto, and grown up in the Yokai forest, she knew exactly who these people were.
The two bishops, Lada Yaga, Baba's descendant, and Talulla the selkie, have been effectively shut down by Akemi Seven-Tail, the kitsune who'd been the primary instructor of magic for the rulers of Kyoto for far longer than her mere seven tails should indicate. How she had lived for so long without gaining her last two nobody knew. Though some thought that she actually had far more tails than she should, and simply knew how to hide them, allowing her to avoid any consideration for Yasaka's position.
The Rooks, Dalgan the dwarf and Gaios minotaur, had come face to face with Akuma and Kanayama. A married pair of oni that had been born with an unusual amount of intelligence and blood lust for their kind. Fortunately, they also had an even more unusual amount of discipline. The combination drove them to heights of skill in killing that made anybody who knew about them uncomfortable in their presence. The only exceptions were people who knew the oni posed no threat to them. A very small number of people. The story went that the two oni rampaged through Japan, and refused to bow to anybody that could not defeat them. Yasaka's grandmother was the one who ended up bringing them into the fold, sending champions to defeat them both. Afterwards they had become the most feared pair of enforcers in the Ninetails arsenal.
The knights, Mara the nightmare and Shadow the tulpa, had been surrounded by three members of the Kuro, or the Nine Sons. The brotherhood of nine tengu that had taught Musashi the art of the sword, and had been undefeated since long before that. In fact it had been only one of the Kuro that had brought the oni couple low. Now there were three of them here.
Somebody who didn't know who they were might have thought that the positioning of the Kuro around the knights were just a threat to the knights. Yasu knew better though, they weren't surrounding the knights, they were in the middle of the peerage. A threat to everything around them.
Swallowing hard at the sight, Yasu wondered who the hell this two-tail was, to make not only Yasaka herself put in an appearance, but bring a collection of the most powerful Yokai alive to the party as well.
Then she remembered what Yasaka had roared when she arrived. Her idiot king, former king, had tried to replace her with Yasaka's own daughter? If they made it out of this alive, she was going to have to tell Decalan's mother exactly what he was getting up to without supervision. How Decalan had managed to convince her normally very canny mother to let him find a new queen himself, Yasu had no idea. He certainly hadn't been allowed to put together the peerage originally.
Still, given how the wind was blowing, Yasu decided that it might be best to just stay hidden as well as she could, and wait for things to calm down. Then she'd do what she could to get as many of her former peerage out alive as possible.
"My Lady, if I have offended in some way I most sincerely apologize." Decalan started smoothly. And for a moment, Yasu had hope that things wouldn't get any worse. Decalan had always been a smooth talker, it's a talent that's gotten him out of at least as many problems as it'd gotten him in to. Though those weren't always the same problems.
So wasn't unfathomable that he could talk his way free of this too.
Then some invisible force ripped him off the steps, and sent him flying through the air to the middle of the open space between... Between the two groups on the platform. How had she forgotten that there was another group of people there?
She looked quickly and spotted two devils in schoolgirl uniforms, one of which looked to have been reincarnated from a nekoshou. A tengu in the standard armor of Yasaka's guard. And of course the little two tailed kitsune hiding behind the nekoshou.
The nekoshou was staggering back from something, but none of them seemed to be responsible for her king, former king's, sudden movement. So Yasu turned her eye back to Decalan, only to see a fifth figure fall from the sky right where the devil king was recovering on the ground.
Yasu wasn't quite sure what to make of the fifth figure. They wore dark black armor, their legs were covered in a nearly floor length skirt of light cloth, and instead of a helmet there was a hood of the same cloth. A hood that when Yasu got a brief glimpse inside of it, seemed to be empty.
The sword, though, is what really demanded attention. Yasu wasn't even really sure that it was a sword in any physical sense. It wasn't just colored black, but seemed more like a cut out in the world, like an absence more than a presence. Except for the iridescent runes that ran down the blade. Runes that the former queen had to admit she didn't recognize in the slightest.
Runes that flared brighter when the blade carved through a barrier that tried to protect Decalan like it wasn't there. Which was worrying, to be quite honest, because that was Lada's magic, and the heir to the Witch of the Woods should not be as weak as that showing made her appear.
Instead of what should happen though, Yasu watched as the blade carved through the magic dome, then the floor, and only moments later Decalan's magic sword. Apparently entirely unfazed by the lightning magic on the devils rapier, which should have barbecued whoever was in that much metal armor. Which was just...
Yasu had simply stopped trying to make sense of what she was seeing, and instead just watched it happen. She tried to commit as much of the events to memory as possible so she could review it later when the shocks stopped coming.
That idea ended when the Armor of Achilles shattered like it was made of spun sugar, instead of the theoretically impervious spiritual might that it had always been. The perfect topper to the evening, was when that impossibly black sword pinned her king's, former king's, head to the ground like a butterfly on display.
Yasu wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.
She had never liked Decalan, his pompous self righteous attitude combined with his delusions of competence made liking him hard. Especially when she was the one always cleaning up the messes he left behind. Still, he hadn't been a bad king as things go. The yuki onna had certainly heard of and seen worse examples.
Lada would take it hard though. She was the only member of the peerage who had joined because of Decalan, instead of in spite of him. Yasu had never been sure if there was genuine emotion on Decalan's part, but she also knew that Lada was convinced there was.
Something to look out for.
Idly, she wondered how many of the peerage she could convince to join her. She liked most of them. Well, Shadow didn't really have much of a personality, and Mara wasn't really used to communicating verbally, having been incapable of it before she became a devil. But those were hardly problems, really.
Even while she was thinking, she was still watching the warrior who'd put down her now very former king. The figure walked towards Yasaka, getting looks from the Yokai elite that said that they maybe saw something in that fight that Yasu had missed.
When the armored figure pulled down their hood and mask to reveal themselves, Yasu was surprised for several reasons. First the figure was female. Most of the time supernatural women dressed to show themselves off, either to distract their male opponents, or just as a form of bragging. Even when they didn't, Yasu had never heard of a woman who dressed to completely hide her gender.
Second, Yasu still couldn't figure out what this person was. She wasn't a devil, there was no sign of devil power on her. She wasn't an angel of any sort for the same reason. Some part of her felt just slightly vampiric, but that was impossible because she also felt something like nature. The way a Sage felt while holding the energy of the world. So she couldn't be a vampire, that natural energy was thoroughly antithetical to the decidedly unnatural vampires. It didn't make any sense. Human was right out, humans aren't that pretty, and can't do any of the things she just watched this stranger do.
The last confusing part of the mystery figure was that she looked tantalizingly, hauntingly familiar. Which was just bizarre because Yasu is certain that she'd remember running into somebody like this.
The stranger and Yasaka conversed, and Yasu just caught the name 'Rhostana-dono'. It said something that Yasaka would refer to this woman as a noble, not an equal but highly placed. Which just confused things even more.
And why did the name Rhostana sound so familiar?
It took a moment for Yasu's mind to work through the shock, but when she did her jaw hit the ground. That was the human girl who'd destroyed her own eyes experimenting with magic? The girl who'd flatly refused the offer to become a devil to stay human? The child she'd tried to recruit so many years ago only to have Decalan ruin... it.. all...
Suddenly this made a whole lot more sense. Somehow the girl remembered the incident in her school. If she remembered the damage done, and the classmates lost, the way she went after Decalan made a lot more sense. She probably blamed him by some twist of logic, for everything that had happened back then. And if that was her introduction to the supernatural...
Well...
"Now maybe we can deal with our last guest?" Yasaka's voice cut through Yasu's musing, causing her to sigh. Not being noticed was basically a dream once she'd seen which Yokai had arrived. Still she'd have liked to introduce herself differently.
Without hesitating, Yasu pulled herself onto the platform, and headed over to where everybody was gathering. The little fox's tengu guard shadow-stepped the kit next to her mother, where the child latched onto her mother's leg, and sat on a paw bigger than she was. The peerage was excited to see her, even as they were pushed to one side to allow her to approach Yasaka.
Reaching the foot of the stairs Yasu stopped and bowed, "Lady Yasaka."
"What brings you here, devil?" The huge fox asked, her entirely human voice incongruous with her current shape.
She spoke without rising from her bow, "I had heard from various sources that a young kitsune would be traveling a fair distance with minimal escort. The thing is that my sources are, were, also his sources." Yasu waved a hand at where her former king's corpse was still cooling on the ground, "I was his queen for more than a century, I knew exactly what he'd do with this information. I came to try and keep him from doing anything stupid." She glanced back at the body without rising, "Clearly I didn't make it in time."
"Clearly." Yasaka agreed, dryly.
Yasaka was about to dismiss them and leave, when Yasu managed to speak up, "My lady?" Yasaka turned her attention back to the yuki onna, not saying anything, but the invitation to speak came with her attention. "Um... may I speak with the peerage? I know they'll have to be extradited, but none of them really had a choice about being here. They know me, and I'd like to help them if I can."
Yasaka considered for a moment, then nodded, before turning to leave with her kit. The guards she brought stayed behind, surrounding the peerage that had been herded into one group off to the side, while their former queen and Yasaka talked. The guards stayed far enough back though to grant at least the illusion of privacy.
Yasu joined the peerage, and was welcomed like the old friend she was. Gruff greetings, back slaps, getting nosed by Mara, and Talulla even hugged her. The smell of ocean that clung to her oddly soothing. The only one who didn't greet her was Lada, the bishop apparently still in shock.
Finally, all greetings done, Mara asked the question they were all thinking, "Yasu, what was that?"
Yasu sighed, and scrubbed her face with her hands, "That was old foolishness coming back to bite Decalan in the neck."
"You know who that was?" Gaios rumbled, even as he continued to keep an eye on the two oni watching them.
"You do too," Yasu told them. "You remember Decalan and I got into a fight about him being too free with memory alterations?"
Talulla was the one that got it first, "That was the girl you were trying to recruit?" The selkie asked, her Irish accent coming through thickly, "I really wish you'd managed."
"I really want to know what she is now. 'Cause she ain't no devil." Dalgan groused and spat to the side, which drew thunderous expressions from the oni, and amusement from the tengu. Yasu would have told him to stop antagonizing the guards, but he'd never listened to her about it before, why would he start now?
"I have no idea. But I doubt any recruitment is possible now. She threw off the hypnosis that Decalan put on her, somehow. She remembers everything that happened that day." Yasu told them. It caused most of the peerage to pause, looking sympathetic. Some looked understanding. Again the only one not to respond was Lada, which was beginning to make Yasu worry.
"No wonder she's pissed." Talulla muttered. Though as soon as the selkie said it, it rang false to Yasu. Now that she thought about it, Ericka had fought with short and choppy motions. The grace that somebody as skilled as Ericka clearly was, nowhere in evidence. Yasu considered the way she'd had to stop and check what was going on around her like she couldn't keep track of the fight, and her surroundings at the same time, how hard she'd been breathing when the fight was done. Maybe she was reading too much into things, but that didn't add up to anger to her.
"Do you know who she joined?" Gaios asked, "What she's become?"
"She's human." The tengu guard that had been with the fox princess, spoke up, "Quite insistent about it really. She nearly threw down with one of the peerages in Kuoh, when they pushed the idea of joining a little too hard."
Yasu blinked, trying to make sense of things, not the least of which when the guard had gotten so close to them. The rest of the peerage seemed to be in a similar state of confusion.
"Mortal's cann'a do what we just saw." Dalgan growled just loud enough to hear.
"It's just not possible." Lada murmured, though whether she was agreeing with the dwarf or simply in denial was impossible to tell.
The tengu guard shrugged, "Impossible Mortal is a good description of her."
Yasu shook her head. It was something for her to pursue later. For now she started talking to her former peerage about their future. Most of them agreed to join up with her. The only one who didn't was Lada.
"I can't believe you people!" Lada snapped when she finally came out of her daze, "Our king," She let out a soft sob, "is dead. His murderer is out there and you're talking about..." The bishop waved a hand at them apparently too angry to speak, "We should be talking about vengeance!"
Nobody moved. "Lada," Yasu said slowly, "She just kicked Decalan's ass. Who despite being a self-entitled idiot was still more powerful than any of us."
"But not more powerful than all of us together." Lada said feverishly, her eyes wide and manic, "Together we could..."
"Do nothing. Especially not when surrounded by Yokai guards who are obviously her allies." Yasu stared the witch down, making sure she was being listened to before continuing, "Besides, at the moment she has nothing against us, at least she had no issue using my flyer. I doubt we'll get her to join any time soon, but we might be able to make her an ally if we don't do something to piss her off. In time who knows?" She glared at Lada, "Anybody have any problems with that?" The Russian witch started to speak, only to stop at Yasu's raised hand, "Anybody else have any problems with that?"
The rest of what she still hoped to make her peerage, shook their heads, but it was Dalgan who gave voice to what they were all thinking, "I don't think any of us have any problems with making the 'Impossible Mortal' an ally. Certainly better than the other option."
###
Finding where Ericka had gone wasn't hard. There were Yokai guards everywhere, and Yasu had kept in enough contact with her people that the Yokai were still largely willing to talk to her, current status as a devil or not. So she was directed quickly enough to a coffee shop kitty corner from the subway entrance.
Stepping inside the coffee shop was a shock. A stark reminder that no matter how serious her own issues were, the world went on without her. The people inside went about their business blissfully unaware of what had almost happened, almost underneath their feet.
Which was understandable. The supernatural went through a lot of effort to keep the mundane world unaware of what they were up to.
What made less sense, was how everybody seemed to utterly miss the heavily armed and armored woman who was sitting in a window booth, looking shell shocked.
Was this her first kill?
That seemed... unlikely.
Yasu quickly ordered her own drink and headed to Ericka's table. The woman seemed totally out of it, so the yuki onna invited herself to sit. Something that evidently took her table mate by surprise, as Ericka started and tensed in a slightly worrying fashion, given recent events.
Yasu's thoughts scrambled. She needed to say something quickly that would indicate that not only was she not here for violence, but that she wholeheartedly approved of Decalan's death.
After only a moment the answer came to her, and she raised her glass, "Toast?"
Ericka blinked once then raised her glass and clinked it against Yasu's before taking a drink and grimacing.
"Not angry? I did just kill your king." The impossible mortal asked, just a hint of caution coloring her tone.
Yasu snorted letting out a little puff of frozen mist, "Decalan Eligos may have been my king, but getting powerful enough for my own peerage, and out from under his thumb, was the greatest day of my life."
"I do recall the two of you not getting along." Ericka muttered, fidgeting adorably with her apparently unwanted drink.
Yasu nodded, then frowned, and decided to see if she could get an answer to one of her long standing questions. It just had to be asked carefully. Ericka was already on edge, and the last thing the devil wanted to do was push her into being defensive, "I knew when you summoned me that you remembered more than you should, but we never did discuss how much you remember, or how you remember at all."
Ericka studied her carefully, looking for something, and clearly deep in thought. After a tense few moments the other woman sighed, and began to explain in a clinical fashion that she'd had an impossible degree of self awareness as a small child. Also unprecedented mental discipline, since she apparently undid devilish hypnosis by thinking about it really hard.
It occurred to Yasu, as Ericka explained her past, that she was looking at a woman that discovered the supernatural at a very young age, and discovered that it would chew her up and spit her out if given half a chance. But instead of going into denial, or cowering, or joining the supernatural for protection, Ericka looked back at the literal monsters of legend and said, 'Not if I get you first.'
This sounded like the kind of girl that the yuki onna wanted to keep in touch with.
As Ericka left Yasu wondered, if she survived long enough, how many satans, dragons, and gods Ericka would 'get first'.
Book 1 - Welcome to the Show
- Location
- California
We end up spending two days in Kyoto. Once I catch up with the Yokai I'm put up in the palace and given the night to rest. Which turns out to be a good thing because the next day negotiations begin.
First thing on the agenda are rewards for defending Kunou and delivering her safely home. Mia was just doing her job, so she probably got a commendation but really I have no idea. Tsubaki's reward is Yasaka agreeing to reopen communications with the Devils, but only as long as they come through Sona's peerage. Which will be a huge feather in Sona's cap and thus benefit Tsubaki as well. Shirone is given time with several bakeneko Sages so she could start dipping her toe into senjutsu safely. Something I'm gratified to see since her belief about how her sister had behaved is what had kept her away from it in the first place. To me it's a sign of her beginning to overcome her past, instead of wallowing in it.
Then it's my turn and the problems begin. The first thing offered is a highly placed position in the Yokai faction, basically a noble title. Honestly if I had any intention of sticking around I'd jump all over that offer. Unfortunately that position would come with responsibilities that I really can't stick around for, even for the time I plan on staying in DxD.
My counter offer is that I was acting like a decent person, I like Kunou, and I had the ability, so a reward isn't really necessary. Once we established our starting positions we set about finding a compromise that we're both equally unhappy with.
After going back and forth for what felt like the entire day, but was actually only four hours, what we end up with is a little weird. First, I'm given the Yokai equivalent of a modern British knighthood. An empty title that gives me some measure of status in the faction, but doesn't actually give me power or responsibilities. Second, Yasaka gives me a bundle of nine hairs, one from each of her tails, tied together by one of her whiskers.
This apparently has some sort of significance to kitsune, but I have no idea what it is. So I accept with what I hope is suitable gravity, wrap the bundle up in a provided silk cloth, and resolve to do some research as soon as I have the opportunity. Especially since when I take a chance and ask, nobody will tell me anything.
The devils and Mia don't know. Kunou doesn't either, apparently too young for such mysteries. Any other adult kitsune I can find in the palace just snicker at me. Yasaka herself, when I work up the guts, just smirks at me and tells me that it's a gift, and that she's sure I'll find something to do with them. Next time I have a chance I'll ask Pua.
Unfortunately that isn't the last of negotiations for the day. After lunch and my frantic search for answers, Yasaka presents me with two things she'd like me to do for her. Neither of which is really a problem, a Script to make Kunou easier to find, and a map of Kyoto like the one I'd put together for Kuoh. Both of these are at this point simple and straightforward to accomplish. There shouldn't have even been much to negotiate about.
Except Yasaka seems determined to overpay for everything.
My pricing had been set for a while now with all my previous work for little spirits. Yasaka takes those prices as her starting position and then proceeds to negotiate me up. And Yasaka is good. I end up with three times the amount of money I should have for the job in question.
Somehow.
I'm so exhausted after we're done working things out that I head straight to bed. Yasaka snickering at me through the whole process didn't do anything for my state of mind. I'd wonder if she even knows how negotiation is supposed to work but she's so good at it I have no doubt she does.
It's extremely frustrating.
The next day is spent putting together the requested Scripts. The hardest part of the whole thing is integrating all the different species that Yasaka wants to be able to track separately into the map. Even that isn't hard, just tedious.
That task done, and the others finished as well, we gather together so Tsubaki can teleport us back to Kuoh. All except Mia who's nominally staying in the Yokai forest since supposedly she only showed up to escort Kunou home. I have no doubt she'll appear again at some point when I'm not expecting her.
Devil teleportation is... weird.
It's not actually quite instantaneous, but it's close. For a fraction of a second I have the impression being in a snow globe. Of existing for a split second in a small enclosed space while looking outside of that space as something incomprehensible. A vast... something that...
The world makes sense again as we reappear in the student council room where Sona sits behind her desk doing some paperwork. She starts when we appear, but it's only a momentary breach in her otherwise rock solid composure. The moment passes as quickly as it appears and she sets down her pen to look us over.
"I take it you were successful then?" Sona asks as she examines us, looking for... I don't know, injuries? Missing limbs? Extra limbs? Whatever it is, she finds it or doesn't, after only a few moments settles back into her chair.
I glance at Tsubaki to see if she's going to answer, but the queen piece makes no signs of stepping up. I'd check to see if Shirone is going to, but that would involve saying words to people who aren't me, and that's not something Shirone really does.
Guess it's me then.
"It was more exciting than we were hoping for. We were intercepted twice. First by a stray queen piece that had what I think was a sacred gear. Something involving mirror dimensions, kept jumping in and out of reflections. Second time by a peerage I've run into before," I think I'm doing an excellent job of keeping my voice even, at least nobody's looking at me funny or demanding answers, "fortunately Yasaka put in an appearance with some support so we didn't end up having to fight all of them."
"'All of them'?" Sona's voice is dry.
"I ended up killing the king." My reply is flat. She looks like she's going to ask more questions, but I have no interest in talking about those events and so just keep going, not giving her the chance to ask, "At that point we were pretty much done. Yasaka took Kunou, we took a couple of days to settle things and came back." I shrug, "Shinra-san can tell you more about how that worked out for you than I could. Now if you'll excuse me, I really want to get out of my armor." I'd been living in it for the last couple of days just because taking it off is such a pain.
Not my smartest move, and I regret it now. It never really got uncomfortable, being part of my soul apparently means that it can't chafe or really injure me. But the psychological consequences of voluntarily living in a can for two days are inescapable. Really I don't know what I was thinking. It's entirely possible I wasn't.
On the other hand it got me out of this conversation very quickly, so maybe I'm just better at planning ahead than I thought?
In any case I excuse myself, leaving the devils to their own business. I head home, take my armor off, and do something that would no doubt absolutely horrify Sona.
I call the number Serafall Leviathan left for me and tell her that I would very much like to be on her show.
The squeal of joy nearly blows out my phone.
It takes a week for me to be ready to go to where we'll be shooting. Part of that is negotiation about what exactly will be expected of me. I'm going to be a recurring character for one season. Which means that I'm not going to be in every episode, so I'll have some free time. On the other hand if she's only going to have me for one season Serafall really wants to make the most of it, so I'll be in a lot of them. Which means I had to make arrangements for my students, and make sure my house is taken care of.
All of which is made easier by my insistence that any filming I'm involved in happens on earth. I have no interest in literally going to hell, especially since my transit Scripts don't work across even the little bit of the Gap that separated the underworld from earth. The upshot, of course, is that with all my responsibilities on earth, I can use my own method of teleportation to jump from Kuoh to my trailer and back again whenever I need to, or want to.
None of that takes more than three or four days, so I spend the rest of the time before I have to head to location preparing. I make new wards for wherever I end up staying, and an address Script to put there allowing for easy travel.
So a week after I made the call, I'm sitting in the Student Council office with Sona waiting for somebody to come and take me to where I'll be working for the next six months. Sona looks like she's not quite sure what to do with herself. On one hand she's always happy to spend time with me, even if all we do is drink tea, play chess, and chat. Which is what we're trying to do now. On the other hand there's a more than decent chance that her big sister is going to show up in her domain any moment now. The conflicting emotions have her so distracted that I actually almost win a game.
She notices before such a thing could come to pass though, and she manages to recover enough to eke out a win. Which leaves her even more conflicted, for reasons completely beyond me.
I'm about to give up on keeping her focus and just let her stew in her own emotional morass, when the corner of the room set aside for teleportation arrivals lights up. The magic circle that indicates that a devil is teleporting in hovers for a moment, then flashes brightly depositing the Leviathan herself into the room. I have just enough time to register who's arrived before the Leviathan is across the room and latched on to her younger sister.
"So-tan~!" She coo's happily while clutching her sister to her chest, and rubbing her cheek on the younger girl's head.
As much as Sona complains and struggles, she's obviously not putting much effort into escaping. She still seems a little upset though, so I try to help her out, "Leviathan, maybe go a little easy on your sister today? She's been distracted by something since I got here. She's so out of it that she actually almost lost a chess game." The smile on Serafall's face turns wicked, and Sona develops a spectacular blush.
Somehow, I think I just failed at helping.
An idea that's cemented when Serafall turns back to Sona and whispers in her ear, "Almost lost a game So-tan? If I left you alone with your girlfriend a little longer, would I be welcoming her to the family?" If I were human, I wouldn't have heard that.
Also, what?
There's clearly something I'm missing as Sona starts making a sound like a boiling tea kettle and somehow getting even redder. She hides her face in her hands and Serafall dissolves into cackles before turning to me.
"Hello Murder-chan~!" She sing songs before giving me a hug as well, "Are you ready to get started?"
"Please tell me my character isn't actually named that?" I manage to ask with minimal desperation.
Leviathan giggles, "Of course not! That wouldn't fit your character's dark image. You've given up the idea of a magical girl name all together as a method of rejecting the whole institution." She tells me with a smile.
"Decided to go with the dark magical girl idea?" I ask as I stand and collect my things. Two duffel bags, one full of armor the other full of script stuff, and Sclamhaire's carrying case which goes on my back. I'm not bringing many clothes since I expect to be back in Kuoh a lot.
Teleportation really makes packing so much easier.
"Not quite." Serafall says with a wink, "Ready now?"
I do a quick mental double check, then nod, "Yup."
"Great!" Leviathan grabbed my arm and hugged it to her chest in a way that I would have found odd from anybody else. But the Leviathan is both crazy, and I've seen anime girls cling to others this way in shows before, so her doing it doesn't really surprise me.
The heat of the glare that Sona is leveling at her big sister on the other hand does. Serafall hasn't done anything that bad since she got here. I wonder what Sona's problem is? I glance down at where Serafall is holding me, and getting a fantastic view of her cleavage. Which makes me think about how the two of us look from the outside.
Wait, aren't the girls doing this in those shows typically trying to tease somebody they like by holding the arm in question between their...
"We're off then! I'll bring your chess partner back soon~!" The satan class devil in the pretty princess dress sings, before I'm once again ripped out of the universe.
Sort of expecting it this time, I get a better look at that infinite non-existent moment in between leaving and arriving. That impression of being trapped in a snow globe surrounded by... absence.
Then we're back, the late evening that had just been outside the windows of the student council room, and the student council room itself really, is instantaneously replaced by early morning California sunlight and a very different environment.
If I hadn't been born and raised in the state, and been to L.A. more than a few times growing up with Sarah and various combinations of our families, I wouldn't recognize where we are. I guess I still don't specifically, but the generalities are easily identifiable.
"Are we on a Hollywood lot?" I ask incredulously, looking around at the large warehouse-like buildings and the people, both on foot and in golf carts, rushing everywhere.
"Of course!" Serafall chirps leading me off, "When you think about how much of the movie and TV industry have deals with various devils, it makes a lot more sense. I mean how else do you think Harvey Weinstein manages to find anybody willing to work with him?"
I blink at that as I'm dragged along by the bouncing devil. I don't know why I'm so surprised at the idea that the largest industry in the city of angels has infernal backing... but I guess I'm really not after giving it a moment's thought.
I glance back at our arrival point trying to figure out what I'm experiencing during teleportation. I have a theory, but I also have an expert right here that I might as well take advantage of, "How does devil teleportation work anyway?"
Serafall gives me a complicated look containing amusement, concern, and a faint hint of suspicion, "You want me to teach you how to teleport?"
I shake my head, "Not really, I doubt I could even if you did give me instructions. I just want to know the basic mechanism."
"Oh! Okay." The Leviathan's bounce is back, "We just step out of the universe into the Gap for a fraction of a second then back wherever we want to be."
There's an important bit of knowledge in that simple explanation. Something I resolve to unpack and think about later, but for the moment...
"So what now?" I ask as my guide leads me to a specific lot.
"Well first you'll drop your stuff in your trailer," I have a trailer? "then we introduce you to the rest of the cast, and then! Then! We get started~!" She almost sings the last, and I find myself dragged along behind her. Partially by her enthusiasm, which I admit without shame is infections, but also largely by the arm she still hadn't let go of.
I'm suddenly struck by the premonition that this is going to be a very long day.
Almost certainly also a fun one though.
I find myself smiling and starting to keep up with the flouncing devil, almost skipping long with her as she happily babbles away about how excited she is, and all the things she's looking forward to.
My smile widens as I find myself getting excited about everything as well, her enthusiasm infectious.
This really was a great idea. Such a better vacation than Roanoke the Island of Death.
I close the door to my trailer and lean against it with a groan. Under one arm I've got a rather large stack of paper which is the script for the first five episodes of the twenty four we'll be filming.
Really I'm more than a little excited, even through my exhaustion.
My character is that last living member of a 'previous generation', so to speak, of magical girls. We did the typical magical girl thing, fought the forces of Darkness, killed the baron or duke of whatever, and then retired. Assuming our job was done.
Unfortunately, nobody told the forces of darkness that we were retired and they should leave us alone now. So thinking they were safe my former magical companions were picked off one at a time, until my character was the only one left, and through it all the Powers That Be that make magical girls did nothing to help. So she's been fighting a one woman war of survival and vengeance ever since.
I've got cameos in the first two episodes for foreshadowing, and I show up initially as an antagonist in episode three. Where I get to beat the shit out of the current sentai in an effort to drive them away from a path in life that my character considers little better than suicide. Something that she's apparently done before and had it work, so the Powers That Be have her labeled a fallen magical girl and a villain. In fact for the first half of the season I'm billed as the main villain.
I'm actually really looking forward to that. I get to pick a fight with the Leviathan and her entire peerage, beat the crap out of them, and get away with it, in front of an audience of millions. Fake or not how many people get to say something like that?
In the second half of the season though, the same baddie that offed my team comes after Magical Girl Leviathan and her team, driving me to protect them. At first largely out of spite granted, but that starts my transformation from antagonist, to reluctant ally and teacher, to finally friend. I'm actually responsible for giving Leviathan and crew their power up for the season, which is kinda cool.
There's more going on during the season of course. Lesser single episode villains. The usual interpersonal and relationship drama common in TV shows aimed at teens. Magical Girl Leviathan having trouble with her home life leading to emotional instability appropriate for the age of her character. Which leads to her having a really hard time with control of her magic, but most of that would have very little to do with me until the very end of the season.
It honestly all sounded like a lot of fun, and I can't wait to get into it. I'm definitely getting a copy of the season in a format that I can take with me when I leave. Probably the previous seasons as well, if they're anywhere near as well written and acted as this one is and will be.
I was surprised to learn that this would only be the third season of Magical Girl Levi-tan's show. It's sometimes hard to remember given how intrinsic the whole magical girl thing is to Serafall's personality and how old she is, that the concept of a magical girl as modern society understands such a thing is relatively new. Special effects good enough to disguise the use of magic on set even newer.
Strangely though none of that is really what's occupying my mind right now. I'd had a chance to think over what Leviathan had told me about devil teleportation. Assuming I'm right, devil magic may have, once again, given me the key I need to accomplish my goals.
Devilish teleportation works by moving in and out of the Dimensional Gap. Just pop out and back in again wherever you want to be. Which is why they can move between the underworld and Earth so easily, it's just a matter of aiming differently.
Which leads to my revelation. That moment that I'd been perceiving when teleported is a momentary glimpse of the Gap. Which neatly explains why I've been having so much trouble. I've been treating the Gap like an incredibly dangerous substance. But it's not, it's an absence. The Gap is quite literally where Script isn't. There's no definition there, which is why it's so dangerous. Script defines everything in a universe. Out there where it isn't, the base physics that allows for matter, and anything else really, is just absent. So with no strong or weak forces, no gravity or electromagnetism, hell, literally no space or time, everything just... comes apart.
So how do devils use this... I can't even call it a place really, to travel so casually without ceasing to exist? Simple. That feeling I got of being in a snow globe looking out at the absence? That's devils taking their physics with them. They're literally making tiny pocket universes where their powers continue to work simply because that's how they expect things to function.
I mean, what the fuck?
Devil magic is entirely unfair.
Really makes me wish that it's the sort of thing that I could count on working somewhere with a less... accommodating reality narrative.
Still it's not the sort of thing that I can do. Not even a tactic I can really use, not having the sheer power output of a devil. Sure, somehow universes themselves are self perpetuating with just script, but I have no idea how they do that, or even where to start finding out. So that's out.
Still, I know what I'm working with now, which means I can start moving forward again.
Thinking about moving forward makes me cringe slightly, as I can't help but feel that recently I've been kind of complacent. I know what's coming, but other than hone myself what have I been doing to get ready for it?
Not nearly enough is the answer.
Sure, some things will be butterflied away, but there are several events that I think I can count on. First, the fallen that want to get their hands on Asia are going to set up in the abandoned church. Given their fallen natures they simply won't be able to help themselves. Desecrating a place dedicated to their 'father' would just be far too appealing to resist.
Second, the final battle with Kokabiel will end up happening at Kuoh High School. Kokabiel is going to be there for Rias and Sona. The school is the center of their territory, the place where they'll feel the most comfortable retreating to. So really there's no way the battle will be anywhere else.
So I find myself in the unusual position of knowing both where and when a battle will be happening in advance, and with plenty of time to prepare a few welcoming surprises.
I take a seat at the small desk in my trailer, and set the scripts aside. I have plenty of time to learn my lines, I don't have anything to say in the first episode, and only have three lines in the second. So I feel no guilt at all designing some new Scripts for the future.
I wonder if those gremlins can get me any more 'military surplus'?
First thing on the agenda are rewards for defending Kunou and delivering her safely home. Mia was just doing her job, so she probably got a commendation but really I have no idea. Tsubaki's reward is Yasaka agreeing to reopen communications with the Devils, but only as long as they come through Sona's peerage. Which will be a huge feather in Sona's cap and thus benefit Tsubaki as well. Shirone is given time with several bakeneko Sages so she could start dipping her toe into senjutsu safely. Something I'm gratified to see since her belief about how her sister had behaved is what had kept her away from it in the first place. To me it's a sign of her beginning to overcome her past, instead of wallowing in it.
Then it's my turn and the problems begin. The first thing offered is a highly placed position in the Yokai faction, basically a noble title. Honestly if I had any intention of sticking around I'd jump all over that offer. Unfortunately that position would come with responsibilities that I really can't stick around for, even for the time I plan on staying in DxD.
My counter offer is that I was acting like a decent person, I like Kunou, and I had the ability, so a reward isn't really necessary. Once we established our starting positions we set about finding a compromise that we're both equally unhappy with.
After going back and forth for what felt like the entire day, but was actually only four hours, what we end up with is a little weird. First, I'm given the Yokai equivalent of a modern British knighthood. An empty title that gives me some measure of status in the faction, but doesn't actually give me power or responsibilities. Second, Yasaka gives me a bundle of nine hairs, one from each of her tails, tied together by one of her whiskers.
This apparently has some sort of significance to kitsune, but I have no idea what it is. So I accept with what I hope is suitable gravity, wrap the bundle up in a provided silk cloth, and resolve to do some research as soon as I have the opportunity. Especially since when I take a chance and ask, nobody will tell me anything.
The devils and Mia don't know. Kunou doesn't either, apparently too young for such mysteries. Any other adult kitsune I can find in the palace just snicker at me. Yasaka herself, when I work up the guts, just smirks at me and tells me that it's a gift, and that she's sure I'll find something to do with them. Next time I have a chance I'll ask Pua.
Unfortunately that isn't the last of negotiations for the day. After lunch and my frantic search for answers, Yasaka presents me with two things she'd like me to do for her. Neither of which is really a problem, a Script to make Kunou easier to find, and a map of Kyoto like the one I'd put together for Kuoh. Both of these are at this point simple and straightforward to accomplish. There shouldn't have even been much to negotiate about.
Except Yasaka seems determined to overpay for everything.
My pricing had been set for a while now with all my previous work for little spirits. Yasaka takes those prices as her starting position and then proceeds to negotiate me up. And Yasaka is good. I end up with three times the amount of money I should have for the job in question.
Somehow.
I'm so exhausted after we're done working things out that I head straight to bed. Yasaka snickering at me through the whole process didn't do anything for my state of mind. I'd wonder if she even knows how negotiation is supposed to work but she's so good at it I have no doubt she does.
It's extremely frustrating.
The next day is spent putting together the requested Scripts. The hardest part of the whole thing is integrating all the different species that Yasaka wants to be able to track separately into the map. Even that isn't hard, just tedious.
That task done, and the others finished as well, we gather together so Tsubaki can teleport us back to Kuoh. All except Mia who's nominally staying in the Yokai forest since supposedly she only showed up to escort Kunou home. I have no doubt she'll appear again at some point when I'm not expecting her.
Devil teleportation is... weird.
It's not actually quite instantaneous, but it's close. For a fraction of a second I have the impression being in a snow globe. Of existing for a split second in a small enclosed space while looking outside of that space as something incomprehensible. A vast... something that...
The world makes sense again as we reappear in the student council room where Sona sits behind her desk doing some paperwork. She starts when we appear, but it's only a momentary breach in her otherwise rock solid composure. The moment passes as quickly as it appears and she sets down her pen to look us over.
"I take it you were successful then?" Sona asks as she examines us, looking for... I don't know, injuries? Missing limbs? Extra limbs? Whatever it is, she finds it or doesn't, after only a few moments settles back into her chair.
I glance at Tsubaki to see if she's going to answer, but the queen piece makes no signs of stepping up. I'd check to see if Shirone is going to, but that would involve saying words to people who aren't me, and that's not something Shirone really does.
Guess it's me then.
"It was more exciting than we were hoping for. We were intercepted twice. First by a stray queen piece that had what I think was a sacred gear. Something involving mirror dimensions, kept jumping in and out of reflections. Second time by a peerage I've run into before," I think I'm doing an excellent job of keeping my voice even, at least nobody's looking at me funny or demanding answers, "fortunately Yasaka put in an appearance with some support so we didn't end up having to fight all of them."
"'All of them'?" Sona's voice is dry.
"I ended up killing the king." My reply is flat. She looks like she's going to ask more questions, but I have no interest in talking about those events and so just keep going, not giving her the chance to ask, "At that point we were pretty much done. Yasaka took Kunou, we took a couple of days to settle things and came back." I shrug, "Shinra-san can tell you more about how that worked out for you than I could. Now if you'll excuse me, I really want to get out of my armor." I'd been living in it for the last couple of days just because taking it off is such a pain.
Not my smartest move, and I regret it now. It never really got uncomfortable, being part of my soul apparently means that it can't chafe or really injure me. But the psychological consequences of voluntarily living in a can for two days are inescapable. Really I don't know what I was thinking. It's entirely possible I wasn't.
On the other hand it got me out of this conversation very quickly, so maybe I'm just better at planning ahead than I thought?
In any case I excuse myself, leaving the devils to their own business. I head home, take my armor off, and do something that would no doubt absolutely horrify Sona.
I call the number Serafall Leviathan left for me and tell her that I would very much like to be on her show.
The squeal of joy nearly blows out my phone.
###
It takes a week for me to be ready to go to where we'll be shooting. Part of that is negotiation about what exactly will be expected of me. I'm going to be a recurring character for one season. Which means that I'm not going to be in every episode, so I'll have some free time. On the other hand if she's only going to have me for one season Serafall really wants to make the most of it, so I'll be in a lot of them. Which means I had to make arrangements for my students, and make sure my house is taken care of.
All of which is made easier by my insistence that any filming I'm involved in happens on earth. I have no interest in literally going to hell, especially since my transit Scripts don't work across even the little bit of the Gap that separated the underworld from earth. The upshot, of course, is that with all my responsibilities on earth, I can use my own method of teleportation to jump from Kuoh to my trailer and back again whenever I need to, or want to.
None of that takes more than three or four days, so I spend the rest of the time before I have to head to location preparing. I make new wards for wherever I end up staying, and an address Script to put there allowing for easy travel.
So a week after I made the call, I'm sitting in the Student Council office with Sona waiting for somebody to come and take me to where I'll be working for the next six months. Sona looks like she's not quite sure what to do with herself. On one hand she's always happy to spend time with me, even if all we do is drink tea, play chess, and chat. Which is what we're trying to do now. On the other hand there's a more than decent chance that her big sister is going to show up in her domain any moment now. The conflicting emotions have her so distracted that I actually almost win a game.
She notices before such a thing could come to pass though, and she manages to recover enough to eke out a win. Which leaves her even more conflicted, for reasons completely beyond me.
I'm about to give up on keeping her focus and just let her stew in her own emotional morass, when the corner of the room set aside for teleportation arrivals lights up. The magic circle that indicates that a devil is teleporting in hovers for a moment, then flashes brightly depositing the Leviathan herself into the room. I have just enough time to register who's arrived before the Leviathan is across the room and latched on to her younger sister.
"So-tan~!" She coo's happily while clutching her sister to her chest, and rubbing her cheek on the younger girl's head.
As much as Sona complains and struggles, she's obviously not putting much effort into escaping. She still seems a little upset though, so I try to help her out, "Leviathan, maybe go a little easy on your sister today? She's been distracted by something since I got here. She's so out of it that she actually almost lost a chess game." The smile on Serafall's face turns wicked, and Sona develops a spectacular blush.
Somehow, I think I just failed at helping.
An idea that's cemented when Serafall turns back to Sona and whispers in her ear, "Almost lost a game So-tan? If I left you alone with your girlfriend a little longer, would I be welcoming her to the family?" If I were human, I wouldn't have heard that.
Also, what?
There's clearly something I'm missing as Sona starts making a sound like a boiling tea kettle and somehow getting even redder. She hides her face in her hands and Serafall dissolves into cackles before turning to me.
"Hello Murder-chan~!" She sing songs before giving me a hug as well, "Are you ready to get started?"
"Please tell me my character isn't actually named that?" I manage to ask with minimal desperation.
Leviathan giggles, "Of course not! That wouldn't fit your character's dark image. You've given up the idea of a magical girl name all together as a method of rejecting the whole institution." She tells me with a smile.
"Decided to go with the dark magical girl idea?" I ask as I stand and collect my things. Two duffel bags, one full of armor the other full of script stuff, and Sclamhaire's carrying case which goes on my back. I'm not bringing many clothes since I expect to be back in Kuoh a lot.
Teleportation really makes packing so much easier.
"Not quite." Serafall says with a wink, "Ready now?"
I do a quick mental double check, then nod, "Yup."
"Great!" Leviathan grabbed my arm and hugged it to her chest in a way that I would have found odd from anybody else. But the Leviathan is both crazy, and I've seen anime girls cling to others this way in shows before, so her doing it doesn't really surprise me.
The heat of the glare that Sona is leveling at her big sister on the other hand does. Serafall hasn't done anything that bad since she got here. I wonder what Sona's problem is? I glance down at where Serafall is holding me, and getting a fantastic view of her cleavage. Which makes me think about how the two of us look from the outside.
Wait, aren't the girls doing this in those shows typically trying to tease somebody they like by holding the arm in question between their...
"We're off then! I'll bring your chess partner back soon~!" The satan class devil in the pretty princess dress sings, before I'm once again ripped out of the universe.
Sort of expecting it this time, I get a better look at that infinite non-existent moment in between leaving and arriving. That impression of being trapped in a snow globe surrounded by... absence.
Then we're back, the late evening that had just been outside the windows of the student council room, and the student council room itself really, is instantaneously replaced by early morning California sunlight and a very different environment.
If I hadn't been born and raised in the state, and been to L.A. more than a few times growing up with Sarah and various combinations of our families, I wouldn't recognize where we are. I guess I still don't specifically, but the generalities are easily identifiable.
"Are we on a Hollywood lot?" I ask incredulously, looking around at the large warehouse-like buildings and the people, both on foot and in golf carts, rushing everywhere.
"Of course!" Serafall chirps leading me off, "When you think about how much of the movie and TV industry have deals with various devils, it makes a lot more sense. I mean how else do you think Harvey Weinstein manages to find anybody willing to work with him?"
I blink at that as I'm dragged along by the bouncing devil. I don't know why I'm so surprised at the idea that the largest industry in the city of angels has infernal backing... but I guess I'm really not after giving it a moment's thought.
I glance back at our arrival point trying to figure out what I'm experiencing during teleportation. I have a theory, but I also have an expert right here that I might as well take advantage of, "How does devil teleportation work anyway?"
Serafall gives me a complicated look containing amusement, concern, and a faint hint of suspicion, "You want me to teach you how to teleport?"
I shake my head, "Not really, I doubt I could even if you did give me instructions. I just want to know the basic mechanism."
"Oh! Okay." The Leviathan's bounce is back, "We just step out of the universe into the Gap for a fraction of a second then back wherever we want to be."
There's an important bit of knowledge in that simple explanation. Something I resolve to unpack and think about later, but for the moment...
"So what now?" I ask as my guide leads me to a specific lot.
"Well first you'll drop your stuff in your trailer," I have a trailer? "then we introduce you to the rest of the cast, and then! Then! We get started~!" She almost sings the last, and I find myself dragged along behind her. Partially by her enthusiasm, which I admit without shame is infections, but also largely by the arm she still hadn't let go of.
I'm suddenly struck by the premonition that this is going to be a very long day.
Almost certainly also a fun one though.
I find myself smiling and starting to keep up with the flouncing devil, almost skipping long with her as she happily babbles away about how excited she is, and all the things she's looking forward to.
My smile widens as I find myself getting excited about everything as well, her enthusiasm infectious.
This really was a great idea. Such a better vacation than Roanoke the Island of Death.
###
I close the door to my trailer and lean against it with a groan. Under one arm I've got a rather large stack of paper which is the script for the first five episodes of the twenty four we'll be filming.
Really I'm more than a little excited, even through my exhaustion.
My character is that last living member of a 'previous generation', so to speak, of magical girls. We did the typical magical girl thing, fought the forces of Darkness, killed the baron or duke of whatever, and then retired. Assuming our job was done.
Unfortunately, nobody told the forces of darkness that we were retired and they should leave us alone now. So thinking they were safe my former magical companions were picked off one at a time, until my character was the only one left, and through it all the Powers That Be that make magical girls did nothing to help. So she's been fighting a one woman war of survival and vengeance ever since.
I've got cameos in the first two episodes for foreshadowing, and I show up initially as an antagonist in episode three. Where I get to beat the shit out of the current sentai in an effort to drive them away from a path in life that my character considers little better than suicide. Something that she's apparently done before and had it work, so the Powers That Be have her labeled a fallen magical girl and a villain. In fact for the first half of the season I'm billed as the main villain.
I'm actually really looking forward to that. I get to pick a fight with the Leviathan and her entire peerage, beat the crap out of them, and get away with it, in front of an audience of millions. Fake or not how many people get to say something like that?
In the second half of the season though, the same baddie that offed my team comes after Magical Girl Leviathan and her team, driving me to protect them. At first largely out of spite granted, but that starts my transformation from antagonist, to reluctant ally and teacher, to finally friend. I'm actually responsible for giving Leviathan and crew their power up for the season, which is kinda cool.
There's more going on during the season of course. Lesser single episode villains. The usual interpersonal and relationship drama common in TV shows aimed at teens. Magical Girl Leviathan having trouble with her home life leading to emotional instability appropriate for the age of her character. Which leads to her having a really hard time with control of her magic, but most of that would have very little to do with me until the very end of the season.
It honestly all sounded like a lot of fun, and I can't wait to get into it. I'm definitely getting a copy of the season in a format that I can take with me when I leave. Probably the previous seasons as well, if they're anywhere near as well written and acted as this one is and will be.
I was surprised to learn that this would only be the third season of Magical Girl Levi-tan's show. It's sometimes hard to remember given how intrinsic the whole magical girl thing is to Serafall's personality and how old she is, that the concept of a magical girl as modern society understands such a thing is relatively new. Special effects good enough to disguise the use of magic on set even newer.
Strangely though none of that is really what's occupying my mind right now. I'd had a chance to think over what Leviathan had told me about devil teleportation. Assuming I'm right, devil magic may have, once again, given me the key I need to accomplish my goals.
Devilish teleportation works by moving in and out of the Dimensional Gap. Just pop out and back in again wherever you want to be. Which is why they can move between the underworld and Earth so easily, it's just a matter of aiming differently.
Which leads to my revelation. That moment that I'd been perceiving when teleported is a momentary glimpse of the Gap. Which neatly explains why I've been having so much trouble. I've been treating the Gap like an incredibly dangerous substance. But it's not, it's an absence. The Gap is quite literally where Script isn't. There's no definition there, which is why it's so dangerous. Script defines everything in a universe. Out there where it isn't, the base physics that allows for matter, and anything else really, is just absent. So with no strong or weak forces, no gravity or electromagnetism, hell, literally no space or time, everything just... comes apart.
So how do devils use this... I can't even call it a place really, to travel so casually without ceasing to exist? Simple. That feeling I got of being in a snow globe looking out at the absence? That's devils taking their physics with them. They're literally making tiny pocket universes where their powers continue to work simply because that's how they expect things to function.
I mean, what the fuck?
Devil magic is entirely unfair.
Really makes me wish that it's the sort of thing that I could count on working somewhere with a less... accommodating reality narrative.
Still it's not the sort of thing that I can do. Not even a tactic I can really use, not having the sheer power output of a devil. Sure, somehow universes themselves are self perpetuating with just script, but I have no idea how they do that, or even where to start finding out. So that's out.
Still, I know what I'm working with now, which means I can start moving forward again.
Thinking about moving forward makes me cringe slightly, as I can't help but feel that recently I've been kind of complacent. I know what's coming, but other than hone myself what have I been doing to get ready for it?
Not nearly enough is the answer.
Sure, some things will be butterflied away, but there are several events that I think I can count on. First, the fallen that want to get their hands on Asia are going to set up in the abandoned church. Given their fallen natures they simply won't be able to help themselves. Desecrating a place dedicated to their 'father' would just be far too appealing to resist.
Second, the final battle with Kokabiel will end up happening at Kuoh High School. Kokabiel is going to be there for Rias and Sona. The school is the center of their territory, the place where they'll feel the most comfortable retreating to. So really there's no way the battle will be anywhere else.
So I find myself in the unusual position of knowing both where and when a battle will be happening in advance, and with plenty of time to prepare a few welcoming surprises.
I take a seat at the small desk in my trailer, and set the scripts aside. I have plenty of time to learn my lines, I don't have anything to say in the first episode, and only have three lines in the second. So I feel no guilt at all designing some new Scripts for the future.
I wonder if those gremlins can get me any more 'military surplus'?
RyubosJ
Person that hates Mega Evolutions.
- Location
- UK
So I'm sure this showed up over in SB, but this line is a bit of an issue. Not because Ericka forgetting that Tsubaki explained it in the fight is a problem, but because the readers will remember the explanation.
Book 1 - Misfiring Canon
- Location
- California
I never expected crystal to scream when it breaks.
It does though. Or maybe that's just the crudely crafted golems that we've been fighting.
Serafall and the rest of her peerage are around me as we fight in a circle back to back. The crystalline golems break easily, but more flood into the room even faster. Most of my attention though is taken up by the man sitting on the black marble throne wearing obsidian plate armor at the far end of the large hallway.
The man lounges in his chair, one hand supporting his helmeted head on a gauntleted fist. His entire mein is one of supreme boredom covered by a thin veneer of amused interest. I think. Only his glowing eyes are visible under his helmet so the entire impression is entirely produced by body language. It's actually impressive how well he can emote through his heavy armor. Still it's not the attitude that one would expect from somebody watching invaders that had made it to his throne room and are slaughtering his troops.
On the other hand we're making next to no progress, so maybe he has the right attitude after all.
"We can't keep this up!" One of Leviathan's companions cries out as she strikes down another crystal soldier with flame shrouded fists, "We're killing them as fast as we can and they just keep coming! We're never going to get them all!"
"We don't have to." I call back forcing strain hidden under projected calm in my voice, "These don't matter, we just have to get through them to him." I gesture at the man on the throne for a moment before punching the head off another golem soldier, "Levi we could really use one of your Frost Novas right about now."
Sera flinched even as she blasted away a crystal soldier of her own with a directed explosion of freezing magic, "I-I can't! I might hurt all of you!"
"Then throw something powerful at him!" The strain in my voice began to overcome the calm.
"But my magic doesn't hurt him! Nothing does!" Sera wailed, and crumpled in on herself, completely losing track of the fight going on around her. So much so that she had to be saved from another crystal soldier by a hammer of wind from one of her companions.
I grit my teeth in frustration. We'd largely gotten Leviathan past her difficulties with controlling her magic brought on by her own insecurities, but the caution brought on by nearly freezing several of her friends solid isn't going away as easily.
That combined with the completely incidental damage to her confidence that the Lord of Black Stone had done when he casually slapped her aside to get to me... It had gotten her closer to giving up than anything I had done.
And he hadn't even been trying.
Some part of me is vaguely offended.
Now though it's a serious problem. We'd barely gotten Leviathan to come with us on this attack, she'd been so certain that there's nothing we could do. The only reason she's here now is because we all told her that we'd be going with or without her.
As it turns out, even through all of her difficulties nothing could stop Sera from being Sera. She had caught up with us just before we entered the Lord of Black Stone's castle. That didn't mean she was miraculously cured of her doubt though. Just that she couldn't let us die alone.
I grit my teeth and glare at the man on the throne. Who is definitely amused now. I'm skilled enough to fight him to a standstill for a rather impressive length of time, but I don't have the raw power to actually hurt him. Not and keep myself alive long enough for anything I accomplished to matter. Nobody but Leviathan really did.
I can't put the Lord of Black Stone down, but I don't have to.
I just have to inspire the one who can.
With a snarl of frustration I pull my heavily enchanted pistol. Something that had caused more than a little strife with Levi and her friends when they'd discovered it. Apparently it was unbecoming of a magical girl to use firearms. My comment that I'm not a magical girl any more shut that down quickly enough.
The weapon proves it's worth now, though, as I empty the clip rapid fire into the crystal soldiers barring my way. Each bullet strikes with a force of mass and magic sufficient to shatter the dark magic golems. With the way between myself and the Lord of Black Stone clear I launch forward, my sword pulled back, then driven forward with the added force of my fall.
The point of my blade strikes with the force of a battering ram. Or it would if my body didn't jerk to a halt in mid air. Then I'm nearly folded in half as I'm launched backwards, losing my grip on my sword, and hitting the ground hard. I tumble several times before sliding to a stop leaving a long streak of red behind me.
The battle grinds to a halt as Sera and the rest of the girls rush to my side. Levi carefully turns me over and cradles my head in her lap. I cough once, blood oozing from my lips. Which makes sense considering that my torso is nothing but a wet red mess. The Black Stone Lord's attack having nearly ripped me in half.
Slow sarcastic clapping fills the air as the Lord of Black Stone stands, "Well done. Good effort. Ultimately futile, but you did better than anybody else has managed in centuries. Far better than your own companions ever managed." His voice is slimy and condescending and normally it makes me want to punch him. Today though, I have larger concerns.
I grin up at the girls crowded around me, half of them looking down at me with concern, the rest looking at the throne with hate, and shouting threats. I know I have to look horrible, blood dribbling from my lips and covering my teeth. A few weak wheezing chuckles escape me before I stop to grimace in pain.
My weak sounds of humor distract everybody and they all look at me in confusion, "What are you laughing about?" The stone prick on the throne demands, "You're dead you annoying parasite! You led me on a merry chase, but in the end you're just as pathetic as all the rest. You even made it easy in the end, if you'd kept running like the coward you always were you might have lived longer. What could you possibly have to laugh about?"
"Made... you bleed." I gasp out.
Everybody glances down at where my sword had struck the stone jackass in the chest. Right where my blow had landed there's a divot and just the slightest trickle of the dark blood of a noble of stone flowed.
He rolls his eyes, "Yes, yes, well done, you've scratched me. Accomplishing nothing, just like all the rest."
All the girls though, stare. In the entire time we had been fighting, nobody has ever even so much as marred Black Stone's skin. With one blow I had dented his armor, and made him bleed.
I reach up, my hand trembling and wet with my own blood, and grab Levi by the collar of her uniform dragging her down almost nose to nose with me, "You..." I wheeze as I speak, "are more powerful... than I am." I gasp out.
"Don't talk," Levi says frantically, "just hold on. You'll be fine. Aura!" She calls for the group's healer, who just shakes her head.
"Her torso is... is gone. I can't fix that." Aura's usually caustic wit is absent, which really isn't a good thing.
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Levi shrieks at her friend, "You'll be fine, just stay with me, you'll be fine."
"Remember... remember what I told you."
It's fine to feel, to be upset. You don't have to be perfect. It's fine to let your emotions drive you, just don't let them steer you.
"I... I got him... started for you." My voice is getting softer now, my breaths quicker, "'Gonna go... join my team... my friends now."
"Don't go." Sera begs, sounding broken. She presses her forehead to mine, something wet falling on my face, "Please don't go."
"Kept them waiting... long enough." My eyes are open still, focusing on nothing, staring into the distance like there's something to see there, "Got him... started for you. Got to... make him... bleed." My voice is barely a whisper, "Bet you never... thought little scared me... would manage that... did you, Nova?" My eyes manage to focus on Levi's face, "Did... did my part! Now... go do... yours." With a small smile curving my bloodied lips, l die.
For a long moment there's no sound but Leviathan's sobbing, and the sniffing of the other girls. Then Sera looks up at the Black Stone Lord, eyes red and tears streaming, and with the sound of shattering glass the throne room turns to winter.
"Cut!" The director shouts, "That's a wrap!"
The cast and crew breaks out cheering and clapping. Leviathan offers me a hand up, and soon I'm on my feet celebrating with everybody else. There are a few more scenes after my dramatic death, but Leviathan had wanted to end the shoot with that scene, so that's what we'd done.
Six months of on again off again shooting, for me anyway, had let us get a lot done. Twenty five episodes, me appearing in most of them, fight scenes, touching moments. The utter cheese and silliness that came part and parcel with the magical girl genre, and a lot of things I wouldn't have expected in a kid's show. Such as my very bloody death, and an amount of romantic subtext that hadn't been nearly so odd when I remember that this is a show made by devils.
It had been a lot of fun, if more than slightly exhausting at times, matching a busy shooting schedule with obligations back in Kuoh. Still, it's done now and the real world beckons.
"You're coming to the cast party right?" Gregor, the man who played the Lord of Black Stone asks with a hopeful smile. The rest of the cast look at me hopefully as well. Gregor is an alright guy, a fantastic actor, demonstrated by how I want to punch Black Stone in the face constantly, but I've never had such an urge with him out of character. He asked me out once, and had taken my turning him down well even before I explained my sexuality to him.
"I'll be there." I smile at them, "I'm just going to pack up my trailer first. The last thing I want to do is worry about making sure I've got everything packed late at night and drunk."
"Great, we'll see you there!" The girl playing Aura tells me with a smile. Her I wouldn't have been averse to a date with. She's a sweet soft spoken girl, the utter antithesis of her caustic black humored character. Also tragically straight.
I nod and wave over my shoulder as I leave the sound stage and make the quick five minute walk to where my trailer is parked. A moment has both the physical and Script lock open, letting me slip inside.
When I'd gotten here my trailer had been pretty barren, nothing but stock furniture. Now though it's incredibly cluttered. Loose paper and journals covered in Script experiments cover everything. In one corner is a stack of a hundred six foot tall steel rods, the sides of which are carefully covered in precise Script. Hanging on one wall are a line of six small gourds, each of which also are covered in Script, carefully scratched into their surface.
Just before I started filming I had a breakthrough on the nature of the Gap by experiencing devil teleportation. I hadn't been able to do much with it though. The Gap isn't really something I want to play with, at least not without my full set up and more protections than I can put in a temporary set up like what I have in my trailer. So instead most of everything here is preparation for what I know is coming.
Surprises for the fallen angels in the abandoned church.
Prepwork to set up an arena to confront Riser in.
Most of it though, are surprises for Kokabiel, when that battle actually happens.
Like the six gourds on the wall. I called in my favor from Rias and got a sample of Power of Destruction. Then with Pua's help, developed a Script to convert other energies into more Power of Destruction, that I then stored in those gourds. Essentially, I made Power of Destruction hand grenades.
Ones that I can hopefully continue to make and use in whatever universe I end up in next.
They'll be useful for throwing at overpowered angels if nothing else.
Now though, my vacation's over, and it's time to go back to figuring out how to escape this hell hole of a universe.
Once I'm done packing all my notes anyway.
And go to the cast party.
So my vacation isn't quite over yet.
I'd last been in my house only a week ago, so really it shouldn't feel all that odd being here. But the knowledge that I won't be leaving again until I'm done with Kuoh makes a difference. I'm home and staying here. The next time I leave is far enough in the future that I'm not even going to bother planning for it yet.
I'll probably just be heading back to Hawaii anyway.
I don't really have to do much to plan for that.
So for now, I'm fine just giving myself a day or so to resettle into the town...
My train of thought is interrupted by the sound of my own voice when I open the door to my workshop. I head down the hallway into the living room listening to myself give an incredibly cheesy encouraging speech very seriously. To my utter lack of surprise, I find Mia sitting on the living room couch, reading something on her laptop and watching an earlier episode of the season I finished shooting the day before.
I stare for a moment. There's no doubt in my mind that Mia knows I'm here. In fact I would not be surprised in the slightest if this whole scene I'm looking at is very deliberately set up. The question now is what response will give me the most amusement, and her the least.
I decide to ignore the TV entirely, "What are you reading?"
"Fallen Magical Girl and Levi-chan slash fiction." Mia tells me with cheerful nonchalance.
I nearly choke on air at her answer, some part of me acknowledging that Mia's won this round, "What?"
"Yeah, apparently you and Levi-chan are the new most popular OTP in fanfiction." The damn bird cranes her neck in a way that makes my spine cry just looking at it, and grins like a loon, "There's a lot of speculation that there will actually be a relationship between the two of you next season. So?" She waggles her eyebrows at me, "Any chance that you'll agree to a second season in which you and Levi will become an official couple?"
"No." I groan, "No there is not." I turn away from her and, in an effort to end the conversation, look for anything else to focus on. My eyes land on my map of Kuoh, my gaze by habit drifting to the places I make sure to keep better track of.
My eyes widen as I catch sight of three black dots in the abandoned church. Quickly I get closer to the map and carefully examine Kuoh High School. I find what I'm looking for with only a moment's searching.
Is it that time already?
Well. Finally.
Of course the first thing I do is call Sona.
My relationship with the devil king has taken an odd turn. Sona has become increasingly defensive of what time I spend in Kuoh, and gotten a little snappy with Rias over how much time I spend on the redhead's peerage. To the point where she demands at least one meeting a week, as shooting allows, with her to 'maintain relations'. Which is a not very subtle at all term for the most undate-like lunch dates I can manage. We usually end up playing chess. I'm actually getting close to winning a game. A fact that seems to send Sona into paroxysms of emotion I can't even begin to explain.
I'm pretty sure that Serafall is doing something to wind up her sister when I'm not around as well, though I have no proof. Or any idea what she would be doing really.
Still it means that when Sona answers the phone I get actual emotion, "Ericka-san!" For somebody with such an obvious crush, I've had a very hard time getting her to refer to me by my first name. Small victories, "It's unusual for you to call during the school day, I take it you're done with shooting so will be in town more often? I..."
Prior to actually meeting her, I never would have pegged Sona Sitri for a chatterbox. But put her in front of people she's comfortable with, and wind her nerves up tight enough, and she becomes one. Normally it's actually fairly amusing to listen to, now though... "Sona." I interrupt her, "Are you aware that there's a fallen angel in your school right now?" I eye the black dot that indicates a fallen, and try to guess about where in the school she is at the moment, "Somewhere in the back half of the main building. I can't tell you what floor though."
Sona doesn't say anything, but I can feel all the joy vanish from the other end of the phone. The sound of her taking a deep breath and letting it out through her teeth is the only sound that either of us make for several moments, "Are you sure?"
"Yup. Just like I'm sure there's three more in that abandoned church at the edge of town."
There's another sigh through the phone, and I can picture Sona pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses, "Those we knew about."
I blink several times.
Really?
There had always been a question in my mind about how exactly Rias and Sona could either not know about the fallen angels in their territory, or not do anything about them until they were forced to, if they did know. I thought that maybe the fallen were stealthier than I gave them credit for. What's her face, stripper angel, managed to walk around their school, right under their noses, without anybody noticing after all. On the other hand they had Freed running around, and he's pretty much the antithesis of subtle.
I thought that maybe the devil peerages just didn't think they could take the four fallen, so were avoiding a fight they couldn't win. If that's the case though they should have called for backup. Which these two peerages of all devils weren't short on.
Really, it had always struck me as one of the biggest plot holes in the entire series.
Now, it looks like I'm about to get answers, "If you know about them Sona, why are they still here?"
"Rias" Of course it is, "said she'd deal... look this isn't a conversation that can be had quickly over the phone." Sona doesn't sound overly pleased with things either, "Nothing is likely to happen any time soon if the fallen have waited this long." There's a logical fallacy there, but since currently only Issei's life is in danger I'm willing to let it slide. I did just get home after all, "I'll arrange a meeting tomorrow, if you would be willing to bring however you're keeping track of the fallen?"
I glance back at my map. The fallen are all easy to spot, there's only four of them and they stand out. The red dots representing devils are harder to interpret, but there is one about where I think the student council room is moving back and forth. I'm pretty sure that's Sona pacing.
With a sigh I nod, then remember that she can't see me, "Yeah, I'll bring it. Usual time and place?"
I get confirmation and hang up the phone leaning my head against the wall on top of the map with a sigh. I really didn't think I would be cutting things this close with my shooting schedule, but here we are, I almost missed the beginning of things.
Or did I?
How long did... Raynare? Spend pretending to be a high school student stalking Issei? Days? Weeks? I suppose canon could not start for months yet. I just have no way to know. Still, if I can do things right, get permission to do them right rather, I might have the whole fallen thing solved before Asia even has to think about plane tickets. I'd really rather avoid exposing her to the fallen at all.
With that in mind, I've got work to do.
Damn it.
I push off the wall and turn around to find Mia kneeling on the couch cushions, leaning on the back of the couch, and watching me quietly. She's not smiling, it's not the look she gets when she's about to go super spy on something, but it's more serious than she gets normally.
"Things kicking off?" She asks solemnly.
I nod, "Yeah. Not sure how long we have till they would in the original timeline, but I'm probably going to be setting them off myself soon one way or another." I'm pretty sure I can lead Rias to Issei as the one with the Sacred Gear if she somehow hasn't figured it out herself already. No need to wait for him to nearly get killed. Or did he actually die and get resurrected? I shake my head refocusing on Mia, "Actually... would you be willing to do me a favor?"
Mia blinks at me several times, and then smiles, "I'm pretty sure you're the one owed favors at this point. But sure, what d'ya need?"
"I have some Script talismans that I need to be placed around an abandoned church without anybody noticing."
I only really need one fallen after all...
I managed to avoid being in another meeting of all of both peerages since the one about Kunou before I left for shooting. A feat that I'm now wishing I'd managed to keep going. The ORC club room is just as crowded, and miserable, as I remember it being. Rias is behind her desk again with Akeno by her side. Sona sits across from me on the couches, which are filled with the higher ranked pieces of both peerages. Those left standing are behind the couches against the walls.
And once again Shirone has managed to find her way into my lap. Her ears and both tails are unhidden and displayed proudly, which I can't help but think is a good thing.
I pat the nekoshu's head idly as the rest of the room focuses on the map I've spread out across the table. I've been ignoring most of the conversation happening around me. The devils are mostly debating why the fallen are here and infiltrating the school. Reasons are tossed around, including the idea that they've figured out that a powerful sacred gear is held by somebody in the school, and they want to study it. The leader of the Grigori is known to be mildly obsessed with understanding the gears after all.
So far though nobody has asked what I think is the really important question.
"Why they came doesn't change the fact that they shouldn't be here." Sona's voice cuts across the conversation, "Especially not without announcing themselves to us. So the real question is, what are you going to do about them, Rias? And when?"
Never mind, there it is.
Rias shifts in her seat slightly, "I'm waiting for them to provide me with an opportunity." She tells Sona primly, "I haven't had a good chance to approach Issei yet," At least that answers the question about whether or not they've figured out who has the gear, "so I'm hoping the fallen will put him in a position where I can save him. That sort of gratitude will do very well to cement his loyalty."
What.
Something in my body language must have changed because both of Shirone's tails puff up and she vacates my lap at speed. Which I can only feel is fair, because she's fucking what?
Everybody is staring at me, did I say that out loud?
Apparently I did.
Well, in for a penny... "You're leaving, what you know to be a serious threat to every devil in this town, half of which you're responsible for, two of which you've made me responsible for, so you can... what? Play knight in shining armor?" I've considered a lot of theories about why Rias hadn't done anything about the fallen. This option wasn't one I'd given any weight to, "Not only that, but you're going to put somebody's, who at the moment is completely uninvolved, life at risk just so you can save it!" My voice is doing the multi-tonal thing, but at the moment I'm too angry to care, "Do you pull this kind of manipulative bullshit often? Don't answer that, I don't care. Issei has to be the easiest recruitment in the history of the Evil Pieces. Tell him harems are not only legal, but socially acceptable in devil culture, and you'll have him. Don't play games with the boy's, and more importantly everybody else's, life. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I take a few deep breaths to calm down and sit again.
When did I stand?
Most of the peerages are looking at me wide eyed. Like they're not quite sure what they hell just happened but they're not sure they like it.
Sona is the only exception. She's not only taken my rant in stride but is capitalizing on it already, "The Grigori are a similarly straightforward issue. Either they're here under Azazel's orders or they're not. If they are, we throw them out and file a complaint. If they're not, then we just get rid of them. None of them have more than two wings, and according to the map there's only four of them. Our peerages should be able to handle it." She catches my eye, "Even though I'm sure we won't need the help, it would still be a good idea to have a combatant that isn't allergic to light magic there. Ericka-san?"
"I'd be insulted if you tried to keep me out of it." I tell Sona with a small smile, which gets me one in return.
Rias seems to still be in shock, and I can't help but wonder how many of these... discussions, I'm going to have with her before I get out of this universe. Which really can't happen soon enough. The rest of the devils start to discuss strategy under Sona's direction. Rias recovers after a few minutes and gets involved in the discussion, though she never really seems to completely recover her composure.
I sit back and let them work. I don't really care how they go about it, as long as the Fallen are settled before Asia gets here, and I get one of them.
One way or another, canon, as much of it as still stands anyway, is going to kick off within the next few days. Weeks at the outside.
I'm actually looking forward to this.
I mean...
WINGS!
It does though. Or maybe that's just the crudely crafted golems that we've been fighting.
Serafall and the rest of her peerage are around me as we fight in a circle back to back. The crystalline golems break easily, but more flood into the room even faster. Most of my attention though is taken up by the man sitting on the black marble throne wearing obsidian plate armor at the far end of the large hallway.
The man lounges in his chair, one hand supporting his helmeted head on a gauntleted fist. His entire mein is one of supreme boredom covered by a thin veneer of amused interest. I think. Only his glowing eyes are visible under his helmet so the entire impression is entirely produced by body language. It's actually impressive how well he can emote through his heavy armor. Still it's not the attitude that one would expect from somebody watching invaders that had made it to his throne room and are slaughtering his troops.
On the other hand we're making next to no progress, so maybe he has the right attitude after all.
"We can't keep this up!" One of Leviathan's companions cries out as she strikes down another crystal soldier with flame shrouded fists, "We're killing them as fast as we can and they just keep coming! We're never going to get them all!"
"We don't have to." I call back forcing strain hidden under projected calm in my voice, "These don't matter, we just have to get through them to him." I gesture at the man on the throne for a moment before punching the head off another golem soldier, "Levi we could really use one of your Frost Novas right about now."
Sera flinched even as she blasted away a crystal soldier of her own with a directed explosion of freezing magic, "I-I can't! I might hurt all of you!"
"Then throw something powerful at him!" The strain in my voice began to overcome the calm.
"But my magic doesn't hurt him! Nothing does!" Sera wailed, and crumpled in on herself, completely losing track of the fight going on around her. So much so that she had to be saved from another crystal soldier by a hammer of wind from one of her companions.
I grit my teeth in frustration. We'd largely gotten Leviathan past her difficulties with controlling her magic brought on by her own insecurities, but the caution brought on by nearly freezing several of her friends solid isn't going away as easily.
That combined with the completely incidental damage to her confidence that the Lord of Black Stone had done when he casually slapped her aside to get to me... It had gotten her closer to giving up than anything I had done.
And he hadn't even been trying.
Some part of me is vaguely offended.
Now though it's a serious problem. We'd barely gotten Leviathan to come with us on this attack, she'd been so certain that there's nothing we could do. The only reason she's here now is because we all told her that we'd be going with or without her.
As it turns out, even through all of her difficulties nothing could stop Sera from being Sera. She had caught up with us just before we entered the Lord of Black Stone's castle. That didn't mean she was miraculously cured of her doubt though. Just that she couldn't let us die alone.
I grit my teeth and glare at the man on the throne. Who is definitely amused now. I'm skilled enough to fight him to a standstill for a rather impressive length of time, but I don't have the raw power to actually hurt him. Not and keep myself alive long enough for anything I accomplished to matter. Nobody but Leviathan really did.
I can't put the Lord of Black Stone down, but I don't have to.
I just have to inspire the one who can.
With a snarl of frustration I pull my heavily enchanted pistol. Something that had caused more than a little strife with Levi and her friends when they'd discovered it. Apparently it was unbecoming of a magical girl to use firearms. My comment that I'm not a magical girl any more shut that down quickly enough.
The weapon proves it's worth now, though, as I empty the clip rapid fire into the crystal soldiers barring my way. Each bullet strikes with a force of mass and magic sufficient to shatter the dark magic golems. With the way between myself and the Lord of Black Stone clear I launch forward, my sword pulled back, then driven forward with the added force of my fall.
The point of my blade strikes with the force of a battering ram. Or it would if my body didn't jerk to a halt in mid air. Then I'm nearly folded in half as I'm launched backwards, losing my grip on my sword, and hitting the ground hard. I tumble several times before sliding to a stop leaving a long streak of red behind me.
The battle grinds to a halt as Sera and the rest of the girls rush to my side. Levi carefully turns me over and cradles my head in her lap. I cough once, blood oozing from my lips. Which makes sense considering that my torso is nothing but a wet red mess. The Black Stone Lord's attack having nearly ripped me in half.
Slow sarcastic clapping fills the air as the Lord of Black Stone stands, "Well done. Good effort. Ultimately futile, but you did better than anybody else has managed in centuries. Far better than your own companions ever managed." His voice is slimy and condescending and normally it makes me want to punch him. Today though, I have larger concerns.
I grin up at the girls crowded around me, half of them looking down at me with concern, the rest looking at the throne with hate, and shouting threats. I know I have to look horrible, blood dribbling from my lips and covering my teeth. A few weak wheezing chuckles escape me before I stop to grimace in pain.
My weak sounds of humor distract everybody and they all look at me in confusion, "What are you laughing about?" The stone prick on the throne demands, "You're dead you annoying parasite! You led me on a merry chase, but in the end you're just as pathetic as all the rest. You even made it easy in the end, if you'd kept running like the coward you always were you might have lived longer. What could you possibly have to laugh about?"
"Made... you bleed." I gasp out.
Everybody glances down at where my sword had struck the stone jackass in the chest. Right where my blow had landed there's a divot and just the slightest trickle of the dark blood of a noble of stone flowed.
He rolls his eyes, "Yes, yes, well done, you've scratched me. Accomplishing nothing, just like all the rest."
All the girls though, stare. In the entire time we had been fighting, nobody has ever even so much as marred Black Stone's skin. With one blow I had dented his armor, and made him bleed.
I reach up, my hand trembling and wet with my own blood, and grab Levi by the collar of her uniform dragging her down almost nose to nose with me, "You..." I wheeze as I speak, "are more powerful... than I am." I gasp out.
"Don't talk," Levi says frantically, "just hold on. You'll be fine. Aura!" She calls for the group's healer, who just shakes her head.
"Her torso is... is gone. I can't fix that." Aura's usually caustic wit is absent, which really isn't a good thing.
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Levi shrieks at her friend, "You'll be fine, just stay with me, you'll be fine."
"Remember... remember what I told you."
It's fine to feel, to be upset. You don't have to be perfect. It's fine to let your emotions drive you, just don't let them steer you.
"I... I got him... started for you." My voice is getting softer now, my breaths quicker, "'Gonna go... join my team... my friends now."
"Don't go." Sera begs, sounding broken. She presses her forehead to mine, something wet falling on my face, "Please don't go."
"Kept them waiting... long enough." My eyes are open still, focusing on nothing, staring into the distance like there's something to see there, "Got him... started for you. Got to... make him... bleed." My voice is barely a whisper, "Bet you never... thought little scared me... would manage that... did you, Nova?" My eyes manage to focus on Levi's face, "Did... did my part! Now... go do... yours." With a small smile curving my bloodied lips, l die.
For a long moment there's no sound but Leviathan's sobbing, and the sniffing of the other girls. Then Sera looks up at the Black Stone Lord, eyes red and tears streaming, and with the sound of shattering glass the throne room turns to winter.
###
"Cut!" The director shouts, "That's a wrap!"
The cast and crew breaks out cheering and clapping. Leviathan offers me a hand up, and soon I'm on my feet celebrating with everybody else. There are a few more scenes after my dramatic death, but Leviathan had wanted to end the shoot with that scene, so that's what we'd done.
Six months of on again off again shooting, for me anyway, had let us get a lot done. Twenty five episodes, me appearing in most of them, fight scenes, touching moments. The utter cheese and silliness that came part and parcel with the magical girl genre, and a lot of things I wouldn't have expected in a kid's show. Such as my very bloody death, and an amount of romantic subtext that hadn't been nearly so odd when I remember that this is a show made by devils.
It had been a lot of fun, if more than slightly exhausting at times, matching a busy shooting schedule with obligations back in Kuoh. Still, it's done now and the real world beckons.
"You're coming to the cast party right?" Gregor, the man who played the Lord of Black Stone asks with a hopeful smile. The rest of the cast look at me hopefully as well. Gregor is an alright guy, a fantastic actor, demonstrated by how I want to punch Black Stone in the face constantly, but I've never had such an urge with him out of character. He asked me out once, and had taken my turning him down well even before I explained my sexuality to him.
"I'll be there." I smile at them, "I'm just going to pack up my trailer first. The last thing I want to do is worry about making sure I've got everything packed late at night and drunk."
"Great, we'll see you there!" The girl playing Aura tells me with a smile. Her I wouldn't have been averse to a date with. She's a sweet soft spoken girl, the utter antithesis of her caustic black humored character. Also tragically straight.
I nod and wave over my shoulder as I leave the sound stage and make the quick five minute walk to where my trailer is parked. A moment has both the physical and Script lock open, letting me slip inside.
When I'd gotten here my trailer had been pretty barren, nothing but stock furniture. Now though it's incredibly cluttered. Loose paper and journals covered in Script experiments cover everything. In one corner is a stack of a hundred six foot tall steel rods, the sides of which are carefully covered in precise Script. Hanging on one wall are a line of six small gourds, each of which also are covered in Script, carefully scratched into their surface.
Just before I started filming I had a breakthrough on the nature of the Gap by experiencing devil teleportation. I hadn't been able to do much with it though. The Gap isn't really something I want to play with, at least not without my full set up and more protections than I can put in a temporary set up like what I have in my trailer. So instead most of everything here is preparation for what I know is coming.
Surprises for the fallen angels in the abandoned church.
Prepwork to set up an arena to confront Riser in.
Most of it though, are surprises for Kokabiel, when that battle actually happens.
Like the six gourds on the wall. I called in my favor from Rias and got a sample of Power of Destruction. Then with Pua's help, developed a Script to convert other energies into more Power of Destruction, that I then stored in those gourds. Essentially, I made Power of Destruction hand grenades.
Ones that I can hopefully continue to make and use in whatever universe I end up in next.
They'll be useful for throwing at overpowered angels if nothing else.
Now though, my vacation's over, and it's time to go back to figuring out how to escape this hell hole of a universe.
Once I'm done packing all my notes anyway.
And go to the cast party.
So my vacation isn't quite over yet.
###
I'd last been in my house only a week ago, so really it shouldn't feel all that odd being here. But the knowledge that I won't be leaving again until I'm done with Kuoh makes a difference. I'm home and staying here. The next time I leave is far enough in the future that I'm not even going to bother planning for it yet.
I'll probably just be heading back to Hawaii anyway.
I don't really have to do much to plan for that.
So for now, I'm fine just giving myself a day or so to resettle into the town...
My train of thought is interrupted by the sound of my own voice when I open the door to my workshop. I head down the hallway into the living room listening to myself give an incredibly cheesy encouraging speech very seriously. To my utter lack of surprise, I find Mia sitting on the living room couch, reading something on her laptop and watching an earlier episode of the season I finished shooting the day before.
I stare for a moment. There's no doubt in my mind that Mia knows I'm here. In fact I would not be surprised in the slightest if this whole scene I'm looking at is very deliberately set up. The question now is what response will give me the most amusement, and her the least.
I decide to ignore the TV entirely, "What are you reading?"
"Fallen Magical Girl and Levi-chan slash fiction." Mia tells me with cheerful nonchalance.
I nearly choke on air at her answer, some part of me acknowledging that Mia's won this round, "What?"
"Yeah, apparently you and Levi-chan are the new most popular OTP in fanfiction." The damn bird cranes her neck in a way that makes my spine cry just looking at it, and grins like a loon, "There's a lot of speculation that there will actually be a relationship between the two of you next season. So?" She waggles her eyebrows at me, "Any chance that you'll agree to a second season in which you and Levi will become an official couple?"
"No." I groan, "No there is not." I turn away from her and, in an effort to end the conversation, look for anything else to focus on. My eyes land on my map of Kuoh, my gaze by habit drifting to the places I make sure to keep better track of.
My eyes widen as I catch sight of three black dots in the abandoned church. Quickly I get closer to the map and carefully examine Kuoh High School. I find what I'm looking for with only a moment's searching.
Is it that time already?
Well. Finally.
###
Of course the first thing I do is call Sona.
My relationship with the devil king has taken an odd turn. Sona has become increasingly defensive of what time I spend in Kuoh, and gotten a little snappy with Rias over how much time I spend on the redhead's peerage. To the point where she demands at least one meeting a week, as shooting allows, with her to 'maintain relations'. Which is a not very subtle at all term for the most undate-like lunch dates I can manage. We usually end up playing chess. I'm actually getting close to winning a game. A fact that seems to send Sona into paroxysms of emotion I can't even begin to explain.
I'm pretty sure that Serafall is doing something to wind up her sister when I'm not around as well, though I have no proof. Or any idea what she would be doing really.
Still it means that when Sona answers the phone I get actual emotion, "Ericka-san!" For somebody with such an obvious crush, I've had a very hard time getting her to refer to me by my first name. Small victories, "It's unusual for you to call during the school day, I take it you're done with shooting so will be in town more often? I..."
Prior to actually meeting her, I never would have pegged Sona Sitri for a chatterbox. But put her in front of people she's comfortable with, and wind her nerves up tight enough, and she becomes one. Normally it's actually fairly amusing to listen to, now though... "Sona." I interrupt her, "Are you aware that there's a fallen angel in your school right now?" I eye the black dot that indicates a fallen, and try to guess about where in the school she is at the moment, "Somewhere in the back half of the main building. I can't tell you what floor though."
Sona doesn't say anything, but I can feel all the joy vanish from the other end of the phone. The sound of her taking a deep breath and letting it out through her teeth is the only sound that either of us make for several moments, "Are you sure?"
"Yup. Just like I'm sure there's three more in that abandoned church at the edge of town."
There's another sigh through the phone, and I can picture Sona pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses, "Those we knew about."
I blink several times.
Really?
There had always been a question in my mind about how exactly Rias and Sona could either not know about the fallen angels in their territory, or not do anything about them until they were forced to, if they did know. I thought that maybe the fallen were stealthier than I gave them credit for. What's her face, stripper angel, managed to walk around their school, right under their noses, without anybody noticing after all. On the other hand they had Freed running around, and he's pretty much the antithesis of subtle.
I thought that maybe the devil peerages just didn't think they could take the four fallen, so were avoiding a fight they couldn't win. If that's the case though they should have called for backup. Which these two peerages of all devils weren't short on.
Really, it had always struck me as one of the biggest plot holes in the entire series.
Now, it looks like I'm about to get answers, "If you know about them Sona, why are they still here?"
"Rias" Of course it is, "said she'd deal... look this isn't a conversation that can be had quickly over the phone." Sona doesn't sound overly pleased with things either, "Nothing is likely to happen any time soon if the fallen have waited this long." There's a logical fallacy there, but since currently only Issei's life is in danger I'm willing to let it slide. I did just get home after all, "I'll arrange a meeting tomorrow, if you would be willing to bring however you're keeping track of the fallen?"
I glance back at my map. The fallen are all easy to spot, there's only four of them and they stand out. The red dots representing devils are harder to interpret, but there is one about where I think the student council room is moving back and forth. I'm pretty sure that's Sona pacing.
With a sigh I nod, then remember that she can't see me, "Yeah, I'll bring it. Usual time and place?"
I get confirmation and hang up the phone leaning my head against the wall on top of the map with a sigh. I really didn't think I would be cutting things this close with my shooting schedule, but here we are, I almost missed the beginning of things.
Or did I?
How long did... Raynare? Spend pretending to be a high school student stalking Issei? Days? Weeks? I suppose canon could not start for months yet. I just have no way to know. Still, if I can do things right, get permission to do them right rather, I might have the whole fallen thing solved before Asia even has to think about plane tickets. I'd really rather avoid exposing her to the fallen at all.
With that in mind, I've got work to do.
Damn it.
I push off the wall and turn around to find Mia kneeling on the couch cushions, leaning on the back of the couch, and watching me quietly. She's not smiling, it's not the look she gets when she's about to go super spy on something, but it's more serious than she gets normally.
"Things kicking off?" She asks solemnly.
I nod, "Yeah. Not sure how long we have till they would in the original timeline, but I'm probably going to be setting them off myself soon one way or another." I'm pretty sure I can lead Rias to Issei as the one with the Sacred Gear if she somehow hasn't figured it out herself already. No need to wait for him to nearly get killed. Or did he actually die and get resurrected? I shake my head refocusing on Mia, "Actually... would you be willing to do me a favor?"
Mia blinks at me several times, and then smiles, "I'm pretty sure you're the one owed favors at this point. But sure, what d'ya need?"
"I have some Script talismans that I need to be placed around an abandoned church without anybody noticing."
I only really need one fallen after all...
###
I managed to avoid being in another meeting of all of both peerages since the one about Kunou before I left for shooting. A feat that I'm now wishing I'd managed to keep going. The ORC club room is just as crowded, and miserable, as I remember it being. Rias is behind her desk again with Akeno by her side. Sona sits across from me on the couches, which are filled with the higher ranked pieces of both peerages. Those left standing are behind the couches against the walls.
And once again Shirone has managed to find her way into my lap. Her ears and both tails are unhidden and displayed proudly, which I can't help but think is a good thing.
I pat the nekoshu's head idly as the rest of the room focuses on the map I've spread out across the table. I've been ignoring most of the conversation happening around me. The devils are mostly debating why the fallen are here and infiltrating the school. Reasons are tossed around, including the idea that they've figured out that a powerful sacred gear is held by somebody in the school, and they want to study it. The leader of the Grigori is known to be mildly obsessed with understanding the gears after all.
So far though nobody has asked what I think is the really important question.
"Why they came doesn't change the fact that they shouldn't be here." Sona's voice cuts across the conversation, "Especially not without announcing themselves to us. So the real question is, what are you going to do about them, Rias? And when?"
Never mind, there it is.
Rias shifts in her seat slightly, "I'm waiting for them to provide me with an opportunity." She tells Sona primly, "I haven't had a good chance to approach Issei yet," At least that answers the question about whether or not they've figured out who has the gear, "so I'm hoping the fallen will put him in a position where I can save him. That sort of gratitude will do very well to cement his loyalty."
What.
Something in my body language must have changed because both of Shirone's tails puff up and she vacates my lap at speed. Which I can only feel is fair, because she's fucking what?
Everybody is staring at me, did I say that out loud?
Apparently I did.
Well, in for a penny... "You're leaving, what you know to be a serious threat to every devil in this town, half of which you're responsible for, two of which you've made me responsible for, so you can... what? Play knight in shining armor?" I've considered a lot of theories about why Rias hadn't done anything about the fallen. This option wasn't one I'd given any weight to, "Not only that, but you're going to put somebody's, who at the moment is completely uninvolved, life at risk just so you can save it!" My voice is doing the multi-tonal thing, but at the moment I'm too angry to care, "Do you pull this kind of manipulative bullshit often? Don't answer that, I don't care. Issei has to be the easiest recruitment in the history of the Evil Pieces. Tell him harems are not only legal, but socially acceptable in devil culture, and you'll have him. Don't play games with the boy's, and more importantly everybody else's, life. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I take a few deep breaths to calm down and sit again.
When did I stand?
Most of the peerages are looking at me wide eyed. Like they're not quite sure what they hell just happened but they're not sure they like it.
Sona is the only exception. She's not only taken my rant in stride but is capitalizing on it already, "The Grigori are a similarly straightforward issue. Either they're here under Azazel's orders or they're not. If they are, we throw them out and file a complaint. If they're not, then we just get rid of them. None of them have more than two wings, and according to the map there's only four of them. Our peerages should be able to handle it." She catches my eye, "Even though I'm sure we won't need the help, it would still be a good idea to have a combatant that isn't allergic to light magic there. Ericka-san?"
"I'd be insulted if you tried to keep me out of it." I tell Sona with a small smile, which gets me one in return.
Rias seems to still be in shock, and I can't help but wonder how many of these... discussions, I'm going to have with her before I get out of this universe. Which really can't happen soon enough. The rest of the devils start to discuss strategy under Sona's direction. Rias recovers after a few minutes and gets involved in the discussion, though she never really seems to completely recover her composure.
I sit back and let them work. I don't really care how they go about it, as long as the Fallen are settled before Asia gets here, and I get one of them.
One way or another, canon, as much of it as still stands anyway, is going to kick off within the next few days. Weeks at the outside.
I'm actually looking forward to this.
I mean...
WINGS!
Magical Girl Levia-tan season 3 plot
- Location
- California
So ask and ye shall receive. Apparently there's some interest in what the hell the show that Ericka just finished shooting might have looked like. So here's the complete typed up outline for the show.
So we start with the team that isn't any more. They had the usual archetypes, the smart one, the fighty one, the leader, all that. Ericka's character was the runt. She was the youngest on the team by several years, and while she had the power for combat, nobody could prove it because she didn't have the personality. Ericka's character was the one to be protected, who hung around at the back of the group, was scared of everything, and generally the character that made you wonder exactly what they were contributing to the group.
If the show was about this team there probably would have been an episode or two about shoring up the runt's self confidence and what exactly she did contribute. There probably would also have been an episode about Ericka's character getting mind controlled as a hint to what she would be capable of if she wasn't so timid. A lot is the short answer.
In any case this team did the magical girl thing, fought the bad kingdom, defeated the bad guys, all that good stuff. They did it for years, until the majority of the team got to college age and wanted to have a life beyond fighting the dark/crystal/evil kingdom. So as a group they decided to retire. They said their goodbyes to their familiars, promised to keep in touch with each other, and generally went their separate ways. Supposedly leaving the magical battle against darkness behind them.
Ericka's character would have been a sophomore or junior in highschool at this point.
The problem started when it turned out that nobody told the baddies that the team wasn't in the game any more. So enter the Lord of Black Stone, powerhouse, magical girl hunter, problem solver. This is the guy the bad guys call when the local magical opposition turns out to be too tough to handle the normal way. When that happens the Lord of Black stone is called and he makes the problem go away, in a very direct, bloody, and often sadistic fashion.
The Lord of Black Stone is also very good at his job.
So a team of retired magical girls is not exactly a challenge for him. Still he does the thing properly and starts hunting them down one at a time. First the leader, then the smart one, then the fighty one, so on and so forth.
Now the team retired or not were very good magical girls, possibly some of the very best ever. So they catch on to what's happening very quickly. The thing is, without their magic enhancing sidekicks, the magical girls aren't really much of a challenge to Black Stone's forces.
Still the girls do what they can, and spend most of the time they have trying to get back in touch with the Powers That Be, who provided them with familiars in the first place. Or failing that they try to find their old familiars. And failing that they try to find anybody to help them at all. When that doesn't work they fight with what they have.
And then they die.
One at a time. And because Black Stone is a sadistic fucker usually in a place where the other girls can hear or see the victim die.
Pretty quickly Ericka's character is the only one left. Her being the runt, and the coward does something that none of the other girls ever thought of.
She runs.
She runs far and fast and well. And as she runs she starts figuring things out. How to work magic without the help of the Powers That Be and a familiar. How to use guns, set traps, and fight to win rather than to uphold an ideal, and how to do all of it without backup or a support structure. Slowly the hints of vast terrifying potential that were shown while she was mind controlled come to the fore and Ericka becomes something that nobody short of Black Stone himself can really handle.
Not that she knows this as she never really stops running. In her head she never really shakes the idea that the people chasing her are vastly out of her league.
After running for a very long time, Ericka discovers something. She finds a new team of magical girls. Not quite just starting out, but very green. She discovers that she and her friends have been replaced.
So while her friends were being sadistically murdered in front of her, usually just after begging for help from the forces they fought and bled for and receiving no answer. While she was running terrified for her life, without support structure, and unable to slow down or stay in one place for too long without Black Stone hunters showing up. The Powers That Be have been playing with younger models.
Ericka's character doesn't take this well. Understandably she begins to hate her former bosses. She can't quite bring herself to hate the new girls though. As far as she can tell, being a magical girl is when you volunteer to risk your life and sometimes more to protect people, and the Powers That Be use you for as long as they can, then leave you to your fate the moment you can't.
A fate that usually isn't good as if you live long enough, and are successful enough which you have to be in order to go on living, eventually Black Stone will show up and kill you. Being a magical girl is essentially a long, drawn out, suicde mission.
So Ericka tries to talk to the new girls. Tries to tell them what they're in for, and how it will end, and that they should get out while they could. Predictably this doesn't work. The familiars argue against her, and the girls give speeches about how they'll overcome all with the power of their friends, all the things that she used to say about her own team. So she knows exactly how much it's worth.
Unable to talk them out of it, Ericka attacks them out of desperation. Puts them in a position where it looks like they're about to die, and then offers to spare them if they give up their magic.
Which they do to save themselves and each other. Ericka leaves and the former magical girls, without magic, disappear into the civilian population before they attract too much attention that will follow them.
As far as Ericka's concerned it works.
So she starts hunting new magical girl teams, to save them from both the baddies and from the PTB. She probably manages to make this work two or three more teams before she finds Magical Girl Levi-tan.
When things start out Ericka's character goes after Levi-tan's team just like all the others. Some teams have proven more stubborn than others so when things don't work out at first that just means that she has to work harder. So she ups the pressure.
Meanwhile the actual baddies show up, so Levi-tan's team is now fighting a two front war. On one side what would have been their normal season three villain, on the other the very pissed off and bitter fallen magical girl.
This pressure starts to get to Levi in her civilian guise as she starts losing sleep, and her grades start falling. This of course isn't something that goes unnoticed. Being the supportive parents they are, Levi's parents figure out that something's going on and demand answers. Answers that Levi obviously can't give them. She also can't stop doing the magical girl thing.
This unresolveable stress manifests as shortening temper, and uncontrollable magic. Levi's powers start flaring whenever she gets emotional and stressed, which is often. Her powers go out of control enough that several times she almost injures her teammates.
One of these incidents happens while facing down Ericka. Who at this point is rather remarkably skilled with magic and very used to managing power and emotions at the same time. So, not actually wanting these poor exploited girls to be hurt, Ericka talks Levi down, and helps her get control back before vanishing again.
Which understandably confuses the hell out of the Magical Girls.
There's a couple of episodes where Ericka takes on the mysterious supporter role. Then it turns out that she's stayed in one place for too long and Black Stone's hunters finally catch up with her.
Of course the first thing the hunters find are the magical girls not hiding from them. Levi-tan and crew are rather dramatically out-classed by the MG hunters and are about to be killed when Ericka catches up and for the first time since her own team died stops running and attacks. She goes through the hunters like a chainsaw through styrofoam.
Now thoroughly confused Levi and friends demand to know what the hell is going on, and Ericka tired of everything she's been doing for the last who knows how long, tells them. Cue one or two flashback episodes, and all the background we've already covered.
From this point forward Ericka becomes the magical girl mentor. She remembers a lot of the tricks that her former team used and teaches them to the members of Levi's team that can make the most of them. Beyond that she has a lot of experience at a sort of combat that in the normal course of things a Magical Girl would never see, and a sort of out of the box thinking that comes from having to basically invent her own magic system.
Mostly though she works with Levi to get control of her magic again, and more than that how to harness and use her emotions to make her more powerful. Just without compromising her control at the same time. This process is very dramatic and emotional and where most of the subtext that led to the slash fiction that Mia was reading/writing.
Before anything can be resolved though, the Lord of Black Stone himself arrives in town. Something which scares the crap out of Ericka's character. Levi and friends manage to calm Ericka down, Levi especially with more dramatic and subtext laden conversations. Finally Ericka comes to the conclusion that the only way any of them will ever be safe again is if they get rid of Black Stone.
So Ericka resolves to go and settle things at last. One way or another, after this confrontation either she or Black Stone will be dead. So she leaves some letters for Levi and friends and sneaks off for the final confrontation.
Of course that doesn't fly and the MG's catch up with her while she's still making her way to Black Stone's throne room. Which leads to the dramatic scene we saw at the beginning of Misfiring Canon. After that scene there's the dramatic fight where Levi beats Black Stone with all the tips and tricks that Ericka taught her and Ericka and her team are finally avenged.
There might be a moment of Levi seeing a ghostly representation of Ericka and team as they appeared as Magical Girls waving goodbye and thanking Levi.
Levi and friends return home to find the letters that Ericka left for each of them. Each letter is personalized to each of them, but each warns the girls not to trust the PTB, and that they aren't nearly as benevolent as they appear to be.
But that's something they'll have to deal with in a different season.
So Ends Magical Girl Levi-tan Season 3.
So we start with the team that isn't any more. They had the usual archetypes, the smart one, the fighty one, the leader, all that. Ericka's character was the runt. She was the youngest on the team by several years, and while she had the power for combat, nobody could prove it because she didn't have the personality. Ericka's character was the one to be protected, who hung around at the back of the group, was scared of everything, and generally the character that made you wonder exactly what they were contributing to the group.
If the show was about this team there probably would have been an episode or two about shoring up the runt's self confidence and what exactly she did contribute. There probably would also have been an episode about Ericka's character getting mind controlled as a hint to what she would be capable of if she wasn't so timid. A lot is the short answer.
In any case this team did the magical girl thing, fought the bad kingdom, defeated the bad guys, all that good stuff. They did it for years, until the majority of the team got to college age and wanted to have a life beyond fighting the dark/crystal/evil kingdom. So as a group they decided to retire. They said their goodbyes to their familiars, promised to keep in touch with each other, and generally went their separate ways. Supposedly leaving the magical battle against darkness behind them.
Ericka's character would have been a sophomore or junior in highschool at this point.
The problem started when it turned out that nobody told the baddies that the team wasn't in the game any more. So enter the Lord of Black Stone, powerhouse, magical girl hunter, problem solver. This is the guy the bad guys call when the local magical opposition turns out to be too tough to handle the normal way. When that happens the Lord of Black stone is called and he makes the problem go away, in a very direct, bloody, and often sadistic fashion.
The Lord of Black Stone is also very good at his job.
So a team of retired magical girls is not exactly a challenge for him. Still he does the thing properly and starts hunting them down one at a time. First the leader, then the smart one, then the fighty one, so on and so forth.
Now the team retired or not were very good magical girls, possibly some of the very best ever. So they catch on to what's happening very quickly. The thing is, without their magic enhancing sidekicks, the magical girls aren't really much of a challenge to Black Stone's forces.
Still the girls do what they can, and spend most of the time they have trying to get back in touch with the Powers That Be, who provided them with familiars in the first place. Or failing that they try to find their old familiars. And failing that they try to find anybody to help them at all. When that doesn't work they fight with what they have.
And then they die.
One at a time. And because Black Stone is a sadistic fucker usually in a place where the other girls can hear or see the victim die.
Pretty quickly Ericka's character is the only one left. Her being the runt, and the coward does something that none of the other girls ever thought of.
She runs.
She runs far and fast and well. And as she runs she starts figuring things out. How to work magic without the help of the Powers That Be and a familiar. How to use guns, set traps, and fight to win rather than to uphold an ideal, and how to do all of it without backup or a support structure. Slowly the hints of vast terrifying potential that were shown while she was mind controlled come to the fore and Ericka becomes something that nobody short of Black Stone himself can really handle.
Not that she knows this as she never really stops running. In her head she never really shakes the idea that the people chasing her are vastly out of her league.
After running for a very long time, Ericka discovers something. She finds a new team of magical girls. Not quite just starting out, but very green. She discovers that she and her friends have been replaced.
So while her friends were being sadistically murdered in front of her, usually just after begging for help from the forces they fought and bled for and receiving no answer. While she was running terrified for her life, without support structure, and unable to slow down or stay in one place for too long without Black Stone hunters showing up. The Powers That Be have been playing with younger models.
Ericka's character doesn't take this well. Understandably she begins to hate her former bosses. She can't quite bring herself to hate the new girls though. As far as she can tell, being a magical girl is when you volunteer to risk your life and sometimes more to protect people, and the Powers That Be use you for as long as they can, then leave you to your fate the moment you can't.
A fate that usually isn't good as if you live long enough, and are successful enough which you have to be in order to go on living, eventually Black Stone will show up and kill you. Being a magical girl is essentially a long, drawn out, suicde mission.
So Ericka tries to talk to the new girls. Tries to tell them what they're in for, and how it will end, and that they should get out while they could. Predictably this doesn't work. The familiars argue against her, and the girls give speeches about how they'll overcome all with the power of their friends, all the things that she used to say about her own team. So she knows exactly how much it's worth.
Unable to talk them out of it, Ericka attacks them out of desperation. Puts them in a position where it looks like they're about to die, and then offers to spare them if they give up their magic.
Which they do to save themselves and each other. Ericka leaves and the former magical girls, without magic, disappear into the civilian population before they attract too much attention that will follow them.
As far as Ericka's concerned it works.
So she starts hunting new magical girl teams, to save them from both the baddies and from the PTB. She probably manages to make this work two or three more teams before she finds Magical Girl Levi-tan.
When things start out Ericka's character goes after Levi-tan's team just like all the others. Some teams have proven more stubborn than others so when things don't work out at first that just means that she has to work harder. So she ups the pressure.
Meanwhile the actual baddies show up, so Levi-tan's team is now fighting a two front war. On one side what would have been their normal season three villain, on the other the very pissed off and bitter fallen magical girl.
This pressure starts to get to Levi in her civilian guise as she starts losing sleep, and her grades start falling. This of course isn't something that goes unnoticed. Being the supportive parents they are, Levi's parents figure out that something's going on and demand answers. Answers that Levi obviously can't give them. She also can't stop doing the magical girl thing.
This unresolveable stress manifests as shortening temper, and uncontrollable magic. Levi's powers start flaring whenever she gets emotional and stressed, which is often. Her powers go out of control enough that several times she almost injures her teammates.
One of these incidents happens while facing down Ericka. Who at this point is rather remarkably skilled with magic and very used to managing power and emotions at the same time. So, not actually wanting these poor exploited girls to be hurt, Ericka talks Levi down, and helps her get control back before vanishing again.
Which understandably confuses the hell out of the Magical Girls.
There's a couple of episodes where Ericka takes on the mysterious supporter role. Then it turns out that she's stayed in one place for too long and Black Stone's hunters finally catch up with her.
Of course the first thing the hunters find are the magical girls not hiding from them. Levi-tan and crew are rather dramatically out-classed by the MG hunters and are about to be killed when Ericka catches up and for the first time since her own team died stops running and attacks. She goes through the hunters like a chainsaw through styrofoam.
Now thoroughly confused Levi and friends demand to know what the hell is going on, and Ericka tired of everything she's been doing for the last who knows how long, tells them. Cue one or two flashback episodes, and all the background we've already covered.
From this point forward Ericka becomes the magical girl mentor. She remembers a lot of the tricks that her former team used and teaches them to the members of Levi's team that can make the most of them. Beyond that she has a lot of experience at a sort of combat that in the normal course of things a Magical Girl would never see, and a sort of out of the box thinking that comes from having to basically invent her own magic system.
Mostly though she works with Levi to get control of her magic again, and more than that how to harness and use her emotions to make her more powerful. Just without compromising her control at the same time. This process is very dramatic and emotional and where most of the subtext that led to the slash fiction that Mia was reading/writing.
Before anything can be resolved though, the Lord of Black Stone himself arrives in town. Something which scares the crap out of Ericka's character. Levi and friends manage to calm Ericka down, Levi especially with more dramatic and subtext laden conversations. Finally Ericka comes to the conclusion that the only way any of them will ever be safe again is if they get rid of Black Stone.
So Ericka resolves to go and settle things at last. One way or another, after this confrontation either she or Black Stone will be dead. So she leaves some letters for Levi and friends and sneaks off for the final confrontation.
Of course that doesn't fly and the MG's catch up with her while she's still making her way to Black Stone's throne room. Which leads to the dramatic scene we saw at the beginning of Misfiring Canon. After that scene there's the dramatic fight where Levi beats Black Stone with all the tips and tricks that Ericka taught her and Ericka and her team are finally avenged.
There might be a moment of Levi seeing a ghostly representation of Ericka and team as they appeared as Magical Girls waving goodbye and thanking Levi.
Levi and friends return home to find the letters that Ericka left for each of them. Each letter is personalized to each of them, but each warns the girls not to trust the PTB, and that they aren't nearly as benevolent as they appear to be.
But that's something they'll have to deal with in a different season.
So Ends Magical Girl Levi-tan Season 3.
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Ethan Eldritch
Multi-Dimensional Eldritch Tree
- Location
- The Void between
- Pronouns
- Tree
Fuck yes! You divine being!!!
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Continuity Error.
These appear in that order.
Book 1 - Wings!
- Location
- California
"I am not training him." I tell Rias, glaring at her and the rest of her peerage where they had ambushed me.
A peerage which now includes one Hyudou Issei. Apparently, recruiting the hormonal little monster had been every bit as easy as I'd thought it would be. Rias and Akeno had cornered him, invited him back to the ORC room and made their pitch.
To Issei's credit he had actually listened past the word 'harem' before agreeing. Not much past, but still. So an impressive number of pawn pieces later and Rias finally had a new peerage member.
Of course, I didn't know any of this until I arrived. Sona had called me to a last meeting to finalize our plans for confronting the fallen in the school. So I arrived, ready and eager to do my part. Instead of planning though, I'm confronted with goddamned Hyudou Issei and Rias enthusiastically explaining how much I could help him get stronger.
Which is never going to happen, which leads us to my declaration on entry.
Rias pouts at me, "Mouuu, why not?"
I raise an eyebrow at her, unfazed by her cute expression, "Because I hate him with the fires of a thousand suns?"
The red headed king huffs at me and frowns in confusion. Akeno though, judging by her understanding glance at me and her soft giggle at her king, at least understands where I'm coming from. She grabs her king by the elbow and leads her over to a corner of the room and beckons me to join her. At least we won't be having this conversation across the room any more.
I don't particularly care about Issei's feelings, but Rias should really know better than to talk about her new pawn like he's not there. The three of us are now huddled up in one corner away from where the walking sexual harassment suit is standing against the wall where the pawns typically end up during these meetings.
Shirone is standing next to him, ears out and pinned, arms crossed, and glaring at him like only a pissed off cat really can.
Kiba for his part had found a seat on the couch and buried himself in homework, apparently utterly disinterested in the whole thing.
And Sona... where the hell is Sona?
"Why won't you train Issei?" Rias whines at me in a manner that I imagine she learned as an effective way to manipulate her brother.
I on the other hand just find it annoying, "I answered that already." I remind her.
"But, why? He's a kind and well spoken young man. Any girl would be glad to spend time around him." Rias insists.
I glance over to where the subject of our conversation is standing. He's staring at the three of us, wide eyes glassy, and a bit of drool clinging to his chin. He's muttering, just loud enough to hear, about the glory of amazon type girls. Especially when they're paired with the big breasted noble lady type. These observations are followed by a muttered litany of all the things he'd like to do with us.
Dear god, why did I make my hearing so good? I can't unhear that!
"Shirone?" I call out, almost pleading.
Good kitten that she is, Shirone immediately kicks Issei's feet out from underneath him with a muttered, "Pervert."
Bouncing his head off the wall, and then the floor, seems to be enough to knock the irritating little grub out of whatever fugue state he'd been in.
"Ko...!" Rias stops speaking mid word, actually flinching slightly from the force of my glare before she corrects herself, "Shirone! That is no way to treat a new member of our family!" Shirone says nothing, just looking back at Rias with a perfect expression of feline innocence. She does preen slightly when I smile and wink at her though. Finally in deference to her king Shirone does help Issei back to his feet. Though she does it by picking him up by his collar and setting him on his feet, and looks like she want's to boil her hands afterwards.
Rias turns back to me with a sigh, "Please? If you just spend some more time with him maybe you can work past your differences. See him for the charming and funny young man I know him to be." That's exactly what I'm afraid of, "I really need him to get stronger quickly."
"I'm waiting for the part where this is my problem." I tell the redhead bluntly. I don't want to spend the time around him that I already have. But I figure that as long as I still find him utterly repulsive that I'm still safe from Issei's harem protagonist effect. It's when I start thinking that he's not so bad that will be the first warning sign that I either need to kill him or run.
In the background I can hear Issei asking Shirone and Kiba who exactly I am. I'd be curious to hear how they answer but...
Rias pouts at me harder before speaking and dragging my attention back to my own conversation, "If Sona asked you to do it you would." She accuses me.
"Sona wouldn't assume my agreement. Or, knowing me as she does, ask at all." I frown slightly at my least favorite devil king in Kuoh, "Where is Sona anyway? She called me here for what I thought was going to be another full, two peerage meeting. To finalize things before we go after the fallen."
"Well..." Rias starts a little nervously.
Then, with the sort of timing that I'd expect from a TV show, a comparison that makes me even less interested in spending time around Issei, Sona throws the doors to the ORC room wide and strides in with the rest of her peerage.
"I'm sorry I'm late. There were a remarkable number of student complaints right before we were about to leave, and It took a little while to deal with... those..." Sona looks around at the two groups of three in the room. She takes in Issei rubbing his head, Rias looking guilty, Shirone looking smug, Akeno looking amused, my looking irritated with all of them, and scowls, "I really should have suspected something when the last minute complaints started coming in. They were all from your biggest fans, Rias. What exactly is going on here?" She finishes glaring at Rias, making it clear who she blames for the current state of things and who she expects an explanation from.
Rias giggles a little nervously, "I just wanted to have a private word with Ericka-san." She explains, trying to sound innocent. And failing from the way Sona's eyes narrow and her glare intensifies, "You make it so hard to get a request to her the way you insist that all contact go through you. And then reject all such requests."
That earns a surprised blink from me. I hadn't known that there were that many devils trying to get at me. Or that Sona has been keeping them away from me. That gets her a nod and a mouthed 'thank you' over Rias' shoulder.
Sona blushes slightly before shaking it off and refocusing on the current subject of her ire, "There's a reason for that. My sister has been very specific about Ericka's handling." No suffix at all! I feel like progress has been made today.
Also, thank you Leviathan!
Serafall and I had spent a lot of time together during shooting, and we'd actually started to get along pretty well. Especially when I started to get to meet the woman behind the hyperactive magical girl obsession. I found that I rather liked that woman, and she'd left an impression on me. I hadn't thought I'd made a similar one on her, but specific handling instructions? From the Leviathan?
That's like getting the Secretary of State taking the time to detail how some random foreigner should be treated.
What the hell has become of my life?
"I just wanted to make a simple request!" Rias complains.
Sona stomped her way across the room to stand next to me, at the same time drawing herself up to her full height. Which means the top of her head just barely comes up to my jaw line, "Has she given you an answer to your request?" Sona demands. Rias opens her mouth to say something, but Sona is looking at me. At my nod my devilish defender turns back to Rias, cutting her off before the redhead can really say anything, "Then that's the end of it. Now we're here for a reason, let's deal with that." Sona says forcefully.
With that, the conversation between Rias and me is thankfully ended, and everybody finds themselves seats. Somehow I end up sandwiched between Sona and Tsubaki instead of in my usual spot on the other couch. I'm not really clear on how that happened, or why. Though from the way Sona and Rias are glaring at each other it means something.
Strangely my new seating assignment doesn't stop Shirone from ending up in my lap though.
The plan, as it stands, has its ups and downs as far as I'm concerned. On the up side, I don't have to argue for my involvement in confronting the fallen. Mostly because there's a necessary task that out of everybody in the city, only I can do.
Specifically, I'm the only one we have who can actually find the fallen. So, up side, I don't have to push to be one of the people on the front lines of the confrontation. Since there couldn't be a confrontation without me.
The downside is that the plan calls for Sona to try and talk to the fallen. Which isn't something I like, for so many different reasons. One, Sona isn't really much of a fighter. Oh, she can do it, and compared to normal humans she'd be unstoppable. But primarily, she's a strategist. If stripper-angel attacks her, I think the fallen has far too good a chance of killing Sona.
Second, I have a rather large amount of faith in Sona's ability to convince people to do what she wants. If Sona succeeds in starting a dialogue, and Raynare has any sense, the fallen will be reasonable and just leave. It seems unlikely on some level, but possible. That would be bad for an entirely different collection of reasons.
I'd lose out on this opportunity to shank an angel and get my wings. I'd have to wait for Kokabiel to show up before I'd get another chance. While that would be annoying, that I'd likely be a known quantity to Kokabiel thanks to stripper-angel and crew's report would be much worse. Sure, I have no doubt that I appear in a Grigori intelligence report somewhere by now. The devils certainly know who, and have some idea about what, I am by now. I can't believe that the fallen don't have some method of spying on the other two factions. So I'm sure I show up in the paper work somewhere.
But that sort of game of espionage telephone is very different from first hand accounts from your own people. At this point my only advantage over Kokabiel is surprise, and it's not really much of an advantage. The last thing I need is these feathered pricks making that advantage worth even less.
So really, even if some sort of peaceful solution is found, I'm not sure that I can let these fallen angels go. For the moment I'll just have to hope that Raynare lives up to the extremely shallow characterization she has in the show, and does something I can justify killing her over.
Step one is still finding her, though. I remember that she had signed up for classes with a fake name, but it's been twenty plus years since I saw the show. Really I'm lucky I remember that much.
About ten minutes before the end of school, the peerages minus Issei, since he's acting as bait, slip out of classes. I meet Sona and Tsubaki in the main courtyard where every student should pass on their way out of the school. Other members of Sona's peerage are taking up positions at the other exits from the school just in case the fallen tries to slip out another way.
This leaves Rias' peerage as our backup in case the confrontation turns violent. It's not the way I'd have liked to do things, but Sona's peerage is almost universally better with magic than Rias'. So Sona's people are the ones scattered since they can work a communication spell.
I argued that they could have just used radio headsets, but got overruled. Apparently, purely technological communication methods won't work through the illusory barriers that the biblical factions use to limit collateral damage in public fights.
So Rias sets her peerage in strategic locations where they'll be able to respond to any sort of violence quickly. I'm set up with a premade pressure script just to the side of the main gate, where natural traffic patterns never put anybody. Sona and Tsubaki are standing to either side of the Script, both to hide me with their magic, since I would be armed and in full armor, and so that Sona will be immediately available so I can just point at the angel.
Just to make sure my bases are covered, I also brought my map of Kuoh, and made sure I'm as empty of mana as I can get away with. The map will make sure that we know at least generally where stripper-angel is in case we lose her. Starting with little mana means I can stay connected to the world via the pressure Script longer, just in case it takes time to find her. Sure I'll be at a disadvantage in the beginning of any fight, but Sclamhaire should fix that quickly enough.
Once everybody is in place, and only a couple of minutes before the school disgorges its students into the wild, I sing my Script to life and settle in. Only moments later students begin flooding the courtyard, and I open myself to the mana being pressed into me.
The angel has some method of hiding that defeats devil senses, even at close range. My mana senses, when connected to the world like this, are good enough to pierce even the veil that Mia uses to hide her power from detection, though. Really, this poor angel stands no chance.
Clarity pours in along with the mana of the world. The devils stand out as negatively aspected bundles of mana. Picking out individuals is more difficult, though some people are more obvious. Sona and Rias are both significantly larger collections of mana than any of their followers. Akeno has significant amounts of light and lightning mana contained in the negative. Shirone also stands out, as bits of naturally aspected mana have begun to integrate into her more normal negative devil mana.
None of these are who I'm supposed to be looking for, so I turned my focus away from my allies to look for my target. I find Raynare surprisingly quickly. Her mana a familiar tarnished gold of corrupted holy power. It's a minuscule amount compared to what the island held, but it's similar enough that now I'm wondering if a fallen really did have anything to do with what happened on Roanoke.
Something to think about later. For the moment, the mana, so similarly balanced to what I spent so much time fighting and soaking in, makes the Grigori easy to track. She's following along a good distance behind a mana source that I almost miss.
A miniscule amount of devil's dark aspected mana, just barely flavored with fire and rampant aggression.
Issei.
I follow along as the two make their way through the school and out the front doors. Once the mana sources move into the courtyard, I open my eyes to try and match what I sense to what I see. For a moment my vision swims as my brain tries to reconcile two very different senses, one of which I really shouldn't have according to evolution.
After a moment though my vision clears, and my mana sense sharpens to match moving mana sources with the people in front of me. I focus past all the normal human mana to pick out the unusual, and after only a moment I spot who we're looking for.
The girl has waist length black hair, pale skin, and has her gaze locked on the ground in front of her. Generally she's looking as demure and innocent as possible in the Kuoh academy uniform. Which is far more demure and innocent than I would have believed possible.
Catching Sona's attention I point, "That one."
Sona follows my finger, "Yuumo Amano." She sounds surprised, "Not who I would have pegged as a fallen angel."
"Probably the point."
Sona sighs and nods. With the angel exposed, the plan now calls for separating her from the rest of the students. The last thing anybody wants is for a fight between a fallen angel and the devils to break out while they're surrounded by civilians.
Issei appears to be more competent than I gave him credit for, and easily catches the signal Sona flashes him without letting on that something happened. The boy wanders out of the school like he doesn't have a care in the world and starts off into town.
Which is when things start to go wrong. We all just assumed that the fallen angel would follow Issei, so we could have him lead her into a prepared ambush position. Why we all thought that, I have no idea, but in hindsight it seems like the sort of thing that I should have spotted. Or maybe I'm giving myself too much credit.
Instead of following Issei like she had been all the way out of the school, she immediately turns a different way and heads off into the city. Which shows another weakness in our planning. Everybody was positioned to cover everywhere we expected the angel to be. As a consequence nobody but Sona, Tsubaki, and I were in any position to follow her.
I've spent so much time training my personal combat abilities, I'd never really thought about working with anybody else. It's beginning to look like a lack of tactical training is a major weakness I'm going to have to do something about. I have no idea how I'll do that.
Where do you even go for that kind of training if you're unwilling to actually join a military?
Problems for later.
With a frustrated curse under her breath, Sona takes off after the disguised Raynare, leaving Tsubaki and me no choice but to follow along. The fallen angel is doing us one favor though. It quickly becomes apparent that she's heading for the abandoned church where the fallen have set up shop. The church is on the edge of town, in a run down and sparsely occupied area, which means finding a place for a confrontation shouldn't be hard.
Which is making me slightly nervous. A feeling that only grows stronger as we get further from the areas of town that could be considered the devil's center of power.
I really hope that Tsubaki has used that communication magic to call in the rest of the devils. Because the only thing I can think as Raynare turns down the quintessential dark alleyway, complete with random dumpster, is that this is all about to go very wrong.
Or very right from the point of view of getting myself a shiny new pair of wings.
In either case my hand drifts to Sclamhaire's hilt over my shoulder.
To my utter lack of surprise the shape of Yummo Amano is standing half way down the alleyway, a little ways past the dumpster, facing back towards us.
Sona undaunted takes a couple of steps forward, "I am..."
"A filthy devil." The girl growls with a sneer that utterly changes the character of her face. Her kind and demure visage twists into an expression of disgust. With her words, her human disguise shreds. Her school uniform fades away like smoke in the wind, replaced with tight leather... fetish wear.
It honestly covers more skin than I expected.
Her wings spread out behind her, and a bar of light gathers in her hand. I'd call it a spear, but honestly it doesn't have that kind of detail to it. With a snarl and a flap of her wings, the fallen angel rockets down the alleyway, her light weapon wound up, and swinging for Sona's head.
Sona locks up. It's honestly not surprising. As far as I know, the closest Sona has been to a fight is a chess game. I don't think that she's ever even been in a rating game. Tsubaki is slightly more on the ball, but both of us were following Sona several steps back, and instead of moving her first action is swearing. I'm not sure, queen or not, that she can accelerate quickly enough to do anything anyway.
I, on the other hand, have had my hand on Sclamhaire's hilt since the moment we turned into the alley. The moment fetish-angel starts moving, I draw back my mental bow string to launch myself in between dominatrix-angel and Sona. A second pluck of the string slams me to a halt, and my internals against the inside of my rib cage.
I've gotten a lot better with my TK over the last six months, but using it as a movement technique still has fundamental problems. I'm half convinced that the only reason that hopping vampires can use it that way without care, is that they're desiccated corpses.
Sclamhaire sings out of her sheath on my back, and I get a momentary perfect look of dominatrix-angel's shocked expression. An expression that gets even more exaggerated when Sclamhaire crashes into the light spear. Which promptly explodes into little fragments of light that go flying everywhere, and providing me with a surprisingly small amount of mana.
Still better than nothing.
Sona is protected from the flying light magic shrapnel by my much larger armored form. Tsubaki is less lucky, judging by the cry of pain from her, and the way she staggers behind Sona and me.
Before fetish-angel can mentally catch up with the destruction of her spear, I plant an armored boot in her stomach, and kick her back down the alley. I'm a little disappointed she doesn't hit the ground, but a flap of her wings stabilizes her in the air, letting her land on her feet.
I take the moment of pause, as Raynare and I study each other, to pull my hood up and take a quick look at my opponent. All the biblical factions are made from the same basic mold, if with very different flavors. On the other hand, as an angel she has to have been made by god, which means no special enhancements from evil pieces. So, strong, and tough, though only baseline. The wings, though, mean she'll be fast as hell, as I've already seen. Magically she's a one trick pony. Light spears are the only kind of magic that I've ever heard of an angel using. Any kind of angel. Only having two wings, though, none of that will be all that impressive. Where I'll start having problems is experience. Raynare was made to fight in the war in heaven, and has been causing problems, and surviving them, ever since. So strangely my biggest worry will be being out maneuvered for a change. Still, she's literally the very first villain in the anime, so she should be weak as hell. Noob Issei beat her after all.
She takes the same pause to form another light spear and glare at me. Behind me I can hear Tsubaki pulling her still frozen king further from the fight. That seems to snap Sona out of her shock enough to try to object, but Tsubaki seems able to convince her that I'll be fine.
"What the fuck are you?" the fallen growls at me, drawing my focus back to her.
My only reply is a shrug.
She doesn't seem to like that answer, and flings the light spear at me before making another and flying down the alleyway after it. I move to swat the spear out of the air, and I'm mildly surprised as the spear hit's the flat and vanishes into Sclamhaire's blade like it's falling into a hole.
That gives me a much more significant boost of mana.
I'm not so surprised that it stops me from using some of that new mana to telekinetically slam the dumpster sideways into fetish-angel, checking her charge by pinning her to the alley wall. It only slows her down for a few seconds, but it breaks her inertia, and gives me time to close on her.
Only moments after being hit, Raynare rips herself free of the dumpster with a scream of rage. A scream that turns to a panicked shriek as she has to fling herself sideways to avoid Sclamhaire removing something important.
Her experience shows clearly, though, as it only takes her moments to recover, form another light spear, and fling herself at me again. We engage in a series of rapid exchanges back and forth, Raynare's almost berserk aggression driving her at me again and again. Every time Sclamhaire touches one of the light spears it explodes into fragments. Which results in my wonderful sword absorbing a frustratingly small amount of power.
Raynare is... well, she's good. Clearly trained and has the expected boat load of experience. She's not that good though. She's better than any of the devils I've seen, much better than Kiba and Shirone were before I got my hands on them. She's probably better than either of them are now. Though I think the two of them together could probably take her. At least if they didn't have to worry about the effects of light magic. She's got a seemingly endless bag of tricks, but she applies them almost by rote. Just throwing things at me until one of them works.
I'm picking up a lot of new things though, which is nice.
My biggest problem right now is actually the fragility of her weapons. Normally I could use Sclamhaire's flat and cross guard to interact with a weapon that I don't want to destroy. Binding the weapon up and holding the enemy still to give myself an opening to use my athame with my off hand.
But light spears, being energy constructs, seem to catastrophically destabilize with any touch, unable to withstand any of its structure being drawn away by Sclamhaire. Which means that fetish angel won't hold still so I can stab her, and she's too quick to stab while she isn't.
It's frustrating.
Fortunately I'm not the only one getting frustrated. Fetish-angel's swings are getting wilder, more forceful. Which allows me to dodge more, which just seems to make her angrier. At this rate, fragile weapons or not, an opening will come, I just have to wait for it.
I don't even have to wait that long. I parry a thrust to the side prompting Raynare to spin, her flaring wings keeping me at a distance while her back is turned. While I can't see what she's doing, she forms another light spear, following through with her spin she brings it down at me in a powerful overhead swing.
It's actually a decent ambush maneuver, and it might have even worked on somebody else. It probably has worked on others in the past. I, however, can feel the light aspected mana gathering in her hands, and can hear the position and movement of her arms. So instead of being taken by surprise, I simply pivot off the line of her attack.
Her spear crashes into the ground with a huge amount of force sending chips of concrete scattering in every direction. I drop Sclamhaire letting her fall point first into the ground, sinking halfway the length of her blade. My newly freed right hand grabs Raynare's wrist, holding her weapon in its current radically out of place position.
Yanking her forward slightly, I also bring my head down with force. The edge of my hood, acting like the inch thick plate of faerie metal it is to the rest of the world, crashes into the fallen angel's face. Her nose explodes in blood, rocking her head backwards, her eyes glazed and stunned.
My left hand pulls my athame free, and holding it backhanded, I slam it into the angel's chest. The blade slides between Raynare's ribs and into her heart. Her eyes meet mine for a moment, the look of shock consuming her features. Then they go slack.
Wings.
The Script on my athame activates. The angels wings dissolve into something like smoke, and are pulled into her back. Into, and then through, her body and into my athame. The rush of a trait flows up my tattoos and settles into place.
I let Raynare's body go. It's fall to the ground pulling my athame free of it's chest. For a moment nothing happens, then I'm doubled over by a feeling in my back that for a moment I mistake for pain. The feeling surges once... twice... And then two new appendages erupt out of my back.
For a moment my balance is shot to hell. I stagger backwards, my arms and my new wings flail yanking my center of balance every which way even as my wings crash into the walls of the alley. Something that I feel like should hurt, but doesn't. The resultant sensation is almost... ticklish. Quickly enough though, my physical talent comes through for me and I manage to stabilize myself and get basic control of my wings. Which means I also get my first look at them.
The first thing that pops into my head when I bring them forward to where I can see them is that they're huge. I read somewhere that a birds wingspan has to be twice their body length at minimum if they're going to be able to fly. No angel or devil that I'd ever seen has a wing span more than half that, usually less. Each of my wings is at least half again my own height, giving me a wingspan of something like eighteen feet.
Their color is a glossy black, which I kind of expected given what I'd taken them from, but where the light hits them I can see extremely dark red highlights. The same color as my hair essentially. What really catches my eye though, is the vivid red irregular strip of color along the bottom edges of the wings. Like the feathers there have been dipped in blood.
Along the top of my wings lay the armatures that normally extended when my armor started to vent energy. Given that energy is normally expelled from the bottom of those armatures in a shape that looks a lot like wings, I have to wonder how that's going to work now.
A surprised inhale from behind me knocks me out of my wing (I have wings!) induced daze. With a little bit of work I get my new appendages to fold against my back, and turn around. Sona and Tsubaki have both peeked around the entrance of the alley, before stepping back into the alleyway.
"Ericka-chan?" Sona asks hesitantly, "Those are..." She trails off hesitantly.
"New." I finish for her, "Just got them. Shinra-san, are you alright?" She's standing behind Sona clutching her right shoulder, blood oozing from between her fingers.
"I will be." The queen assures me through gritted teeth, "Though it may take time." Because of the light magic, I finish for her in my head.
Sona takes the moment given by our brief exchange to somewhat pull herself together. At least superficially, "Unfortunately we're not done yet. There are three more of them." I can see a rather spectacular breakdown being held back by a thin veneer of control and duty.
That does remind me though...
Tsubaki frowns, "We'll have to call in the rest of the peerage. Rias and her peerage too, probably." She stops talking for a moment to grimace, "I'm not going to be able to participate in this fight either. I can't feel my arm at all. Light magic... What are you doing." The queen interrupts herself to look at me.
I pull my Kuoh map from where I stashed it in my armor skirt, and quickly open it up. It only takes a moment to find the three black dots representing the remaining fallen clustered together in the abandoned church. Probably waiting for Raynare to arrive.
"Don't worry about the other fallen." I tell them as I pull a popsicle stick densely packed with Script on both sides, "I've got this."
"What do you mean, you've..." Sona starts to ask, but I don't wait for her to finish speaking before I snap the stick.
The popsicle stick is a new remote trigger Script that I figured out over the last six months. The script tags that I had Mia stealthily plant around the abandoned church form a Script that isn't on the edge of activating, but is constantly trying to activate.
The only thing stopping it from doing so is a second Script that's only purpose is to keep the first from going off. A Script that is sympathetically linked to the popsicle stick I just broke.
So the stick breaks.
The Script breaks.
And the primary Script can finally activate.
The air is filled with a subsonic hum so low that I can barely hear it. All three of us can feel it though. I keep my eyes on the map, and smile hugely when the three black dots vanish from it. The fallen, along with everything else inside the area defined by the tags, are aerosolized. Ripped apart and turned to dust by intensely focused sound. What we're hearing, or feeling, is just what's leaking past the Script's containment.
Which it shouldn't be doing, I'll have to look into that later.
The hum that the two devils can only detect by feeling it in their chest cavity continues for some thirty seconds, before the Script tags burn themselves out. I designed that Script to be thorough.
"There. Angel problem solved." I tell the girls with a smile.
"What..." Sona pauses to swallow hard, and lick her lips, "What was that?"
I grin at them, "Proof that preparation beats power." The only response I get is a soft 'oh' from Sona. Tsubaki grins a little and nudges her king with her working elbow, which for some reason I choose not to think about, prompts a blush to stain Sona's cheeks.
After a moment Sona clears her throat, "We should get back to the others and tell them what happened."
I nod, and all of us start back the way we came. Just before we reach the entrance to the alley I stop short, "Before we go?" The two devils turn back to me confused. I jerk a thumb over my shoulder at my new wings, "Can somebody tell me how to put these away?"
A peerage which now includes one Hyudou Issei. Apparently, recruiting the hormonal little monster had been every bit as easy as I'd thought it would be. Rias and Akeno had cornered him, invited him back to the ORC room and made their pitch.
To Issei's credit he had actually listened past the word 'harem' before agreeing. Not much past, but still. So an impressive number of pawn pieces later and Rias finally had a new peerage member.
Of course, I didn't know any of this until I arrived. Sona had called me to a last meeting to finalize our plans for confronting the fallen in the school. So I arrived, ready and eager to do my part. Instead of planning though, I'm confronted with goddamned Hyudou Issei and Rias enthusiastically explaining how much I could help him get stronger.
Which is never going to happen, which leads us to my declaration on entry.
Rias pouts at me, "Mouuu, why not?"
I raise an eyebrow at her, unfazed by her cute expression, "Because I hate him with the fires of a thousand suns?"
The red headed king huffs at me and frowns in confusion. Akeno though, judging by her understanding glance at me and her soft giggle at her king, at least understands where I'm coming from. She grabs her king by the elbow and leads her over to a corner of the room and beckons me to join her. At least we won't be having this conversation across the room any more.
I don't particularly care about Issei's feelings, but Rias should really know better than to talk about her new pawn like he's not there. The three of us are now huddled up in one corner away from where the walking sexual harassment suit is standing against the wall where the pawns typically end up during these meetings.
Shirone is standing next to him, ears out and pinned, arms crossed, and glaring at him like only a pissed off cat really can.
Kiba for his part had found a seat on the couch and buried himself in homework, apparently utterly disinterested in the whole thing.
And Sona... where the hell is Sona?
"Why won't you train Issei?" Rias whines at me in a manner that I imagine she learned as an effective way to manipulate her brother.
I on the other hand just find it annoying, "I answered that already." I remind her.
"But, why? He's a kind and well spoken young man. Any girl would be glad to spend time around him." Rias insists.
I glance over to where the subject of our conversation is standing. He's staring at the three of us, wide eyes glassy, and a bit of drool clinging to his chin. He's muttering, just loud enough to hear, about the glory of amazon type girls. Especially when they're paired with the big breasted noble lady type. These observations are followed by a muttered litany of all the things he'd like to do with us.
Dear god, why did I make my hearing so good? I can't unhear that!
"Shirone?" I call out, almost pleading.
Good kitten that she is, Shirone immediately kicks Issei's feet out from underneath him with a muttered, "Pervert."
Bouncing his head off the wall, and then the floor, seems to be enough to knock the irritating little grub out of whatever fugue state he'd been in.
"Ko...!" Rias stops speaking mid word, actually flinching slightly from the force of my glare before she corrects herself, "Shirone! That is no way to treat a new member of our family!" Shirone says nothing, just looking back at Rias with a perfect expression of feline innocence. She does preen slightly when I smile and wink at her though. Finally in deference to her king Shirone does help Issei back to his feet. Though she does it by picking him up by his collar and setting him on his feet, and looks like she want's to boil her hands afterwards.
Rias turns back to me with a sigh, "Please? If you just spend some more time with him maybe you can work past your differences. See him for the charming and funny young man I know him to be." That's exactly what I'm afraid of, "I really need him to get stronger quickly."
"I'm waiting for the part where this is my problem." I tell the redhead bluntly. I don't want to spend the time around him that I already have. But I figure that as long as I still find him utterly repulsive that I'm still safe from Issei's harem protagonist effect. It's when I start thinking that he's not so bad that will be the first warning sign that I either need to kill him or run.
In the background I can hear Issei asking Shirone and Kiba who exactly I am. I'd be curious to hear how they answer but...
Rias pouts at me harder before speaking and dragging my attention back to my own conversation, "If Sona asked you to do it you would." She accuses me.
"Sona wouldn't assume my agreement. Or, knowing me as she does, ask at all." I frown slightly at my least favorite devil king in Kuoh, "Where is Sona anyway? She called me here for what I thought was going to be another full, two peerage meeting. To finalize things before we go after the fallen."
"Well..." Rias starts a little nervously.
Then, with the sort of timing that I'd expect from a TV show, a comparison that makes me even less interested in spending time around Issei, Sona throws the doors to the ORC room wide and strides in with the rest of her peerage.
"I'm sorry I'm late. There were a remarkable number of student complaints right before we were about to leave, and It took a little while to deal with... those..." Sona looks around at the two groups of three in the room. She takes in Issei rubbing his head, Rias looking guilty, Shirone looking smug, Akeno looking amused, my looking irritated with all of them, and scowls, "I really should have suspected something when the last minute complaints started coming in. They were all from your biggest fans, Rias. What exactly is going on here?" She finishes glaring at Rias, making it clear who she blames for the current state of things and who she expects an explanation from.
Rias giggles a little nervously, "I just wanted to have a private word with Ericka-san." She explains, trying to sound innocent. And failing from the way Sona's eyes narrow and her glare intensifies, "You make it so hard to get a request to her the way you insist that all contact go through you. And then reject all such requests."
That earns a surprised blink from me. I hadn't known that there were that many devils trying to get at me. Or that Sona has been keeping them away from me. That gets her a nod and a mouthed 'thank you' over Rias' shoulder.
Sona blushes slightly before shaking it off and refocusing on the current subject of her ire, "There's a reason for that. My sister has been very specific about Ericka's handling." No suffix at all! I feel like progress has been made today.
Also, thank you Leviathan!
Serafall and I had spent a lot of time together during shooting, and we'd actually started to get along pretty well. Especially when I started to get to meet the woman behind the hyperactive magical girl obsession. I found that I rather liked that woman, and she'd left an impression on me. I hadn't thought I'd made a similar one on her, but specific handling instructions? From the Leviathan?
That's like getting the Secretary of State taking the time to detail how some random foreigner should be treated.
What the hell has become of my life?
"I just wanted to make a simple request!" Rias complains.
Sona stomped her way across the room to stand next to me, at the same time drawing herself up to her full height. Which means the top of her head just barely comes up to my jaw line, "Has she given you an answer to your request?" Sona demands. Rias opens her mouth to say something, but Sona is looking at me. At my nod my devilish defender turns back to Rias, cutting her off before the redhead can really say anything, "Then that's the end of it. Now we're here for a reason, let's deal with that." Sona says forcefully.
With that, the conversation between Rias and me is thankfully ended, and everybody finds themselves seats. Somehow I end up sandwiched between Sona and Tsubaki instead of in my usual spot on the other couch. I'm not really clear on how that happened, or why. Though from the way Sona and Rias are glaring at each other it means something.
Strangely my new seating assignment doesn't stop Shirone from ending up in my lap though.
###
The plan, as it stands, has its ups and downs as far as I'm concerned. On the up side, I don't have to argue for my involvement in confronting the fallen. Mostly because there's a necessary task that out of everybody in the city, only I can do.
Specifically, I'm the only one we have who can actually find the fallen. So, up side, I don't have to push to be one of the people on the front lines of the confrontation. Since there couldn't be a confrontation without me.
The downside is that the plan calls for Sona to try and talk to the fallen. Which isn't something I like, for so many different reasons. One, Sona isn't really much of a fighter. Oh, she can do it, and compared to normal humans she'd be unstoppable. But primarily, she's a strategist. If stripper-angel attacks her, I think the fallen has far too good a chance of killing Sona.
Second, I have a rather large amount of faith in Sona's ability to convince people to do what she wants. If Sona succeeds in starting a dialogue, and Raynare has any sense, the fallen will be reasonable and just leave. It seems unlikely on some level, but possible. That would be bad for an entirely different collection of reasons.
I'd lose out on this opportunity to shank an angel and get my wings. I'd have to wait for Kokabiel to show up before I'd get another chance. While that would be annoying, that I'd likely be a known quantity to Kokabiel thanks to stripper-angel and crew's report would be much worse. Sure, I have no doubt that I appear in a Grigori intelligence report somewhere by now. The devils certainly know who, and have some idea about what, I am by now. I can't believe that the fallen don't have some method of spying on the other two factions. So I'm sure I show up in the paper work somewhere.
But that sort of game of espionage telephone is very different from first hand accounts from your own people. At this point my only advantage over Kokabiel is surprise, and it's not really much of an advantage. The last thing I need is these feathered pricks making that advantage worth even less.
So really, even if some sort of peaceful solution is found, I'm not sure that I can let these fallen angels go. For the moment I'll just have to hope that Raynare lives up to the extremely shallow characterization she has in the show, and does something I can justify killing her over.
Step one is still finding her, though. I remember that she had signed up for classes with a fake name, but it's been twenty plus years since I saw the show. Really I'm lucky I remember that much.
About ten minutes before the end of school, the peerages minus Issei, since he's acting as bait, slip out of classes. I meet Sona and Tsubaki in the main courtyard where every student should pass on their way out of the school. Other members of Sona's peerage are taking up positions at the other exits from the school just in case the fallen tries to slip out another way.
This leaves Rias' peerage as our backup in case the confrontation turns violent. It's not the way I'd have liked to do things, but Sona's peerage is almost universally better with magic than Rias'. So Sona's people are the ones scattered since they can work a communication spell.
I argued that they could have just used radio headsets, but got overruled. Apparently, purely technological communication methods won't work through the illusory barriers that the biblical factions use to limit collateral damage in public fights.
So Rias sets her peerage in strategic locations where they'll be able to respond to any sort of violence quickly. I'm set up with a premade pressure script just to the side of the main gate, where natural traffic patterns never put anybody. Sona and Tsubaki are standing to either side of the Script, both to hide me with their magic, since I would be armed and in full armor, and so that Sona will be immediately available so I can just point at the angel.
Just to make sure my bases are covered, I also brought my map of Kuoh, and made sure I'm as empty of mana as I can get away with. The map will make sure that we know at least generally where stripper-angel is in case we lose her. Starting with little mana means I can stay connected to the world via the pressure Script longer, just in case it takes time to find her. Sure I'll be at a disadvantage in the beginning of any fight, but Sclamhaire should fix that quickly enough.
Once everybody is in place, and only a couple of minutes before the school disgorges its students into the wild, I sing my Script to life and settle in. Only moments later students begin flooding the courtyard, and I open myself to the mana being pressed into me.
The angel has some method of hiding that defeats devil senses, even at close range. My mana senses, when connected to the world like this, are good enough to pierce even the veil that Mia uses to hide her power from detection, though. Really, this poor angel stands no chance.
Clarity pours in along with the mana of the world. The devils stand out as negatively aspected bundles of mana. Picking out individuals is more difficult, though some people are more obvious. Sona and Rias are both significantly larger collections of mana than any of their followers. Akeno has significant amounts of light and lightning mana contained in the negative. Shirone also stands out, as bits of naturally aspected mana have begun to integrate into her more normal negative devil mana.
None of these are who I'm supposed to be looking for, so I turned my focus away from my allies to look for my target. I find Raynare surprisingly quickly. Her mana a familiar tarnished gold of corrupted holy power. It's a minuscule amount compared to what the island held, but it's similar enough that now I'm wondering if a fallen really did have anything to do with what happened on Roanoke.
Something to think about later. For the moment, the mana, so similarly balanced to what I spent so much time fighting and soaking in, makes the Grigori easy to track. She's following along a good distance behind a mana source that I almost miss.
A miniscule amount of devil's dark aspected mana, just barely flavored with fire and rampant aggression.
Issei.
I follow along as the two make their way through the school and out the front doors. Once the mana sources move into the courtyard, I open my eyes to try and match what I sense to what I see. For a moment my vision swims as my brain tries to reconcile two very different senses, one of which I really shouldn't have according to evolution.
After a moment though my vision clears, and my mana sense sharpens to match moving mana sources with the people in front of me. I focus past all the normal human mana to pick out the unusual, and after only a moment I spot who we're looking for.
The girl has waist length black hair, pale skin, and has her gaze locked on the ground in front of her. Generally she's looking as demure and innocent as possible in the Kuoh academy uniform. Which is far more demure and innocent than I would have believed possible.
Catching Sona's attention I point, "That one."
Sona follows my finger, "Yuumo Amano." She sounds surprised, "Not who I would have pegged as a fallen angel."
"Probably the point."
Sona sighs and nods. With the angel exposed, the plan now calls for separating her from the rest of the students. The last thing anybody wants is for a fight between a fallen angel and the devils to break out while they're surrounded by civilians.
Issei appears to be more competent than I gave him credit for, and easily catches the signal Sona flashes him without letting on that something happened. The boy wanders out of the school like he doesn't have a care in the world and starts off into town.
Which is when things start to go wrong. We all just assumed that the fallen angel would follow Issei, so we could have him lead her into a prepared ambush position. Why we all thought that, I have no idea, but in hindsight it seems like the sort of thing that I should have spotted. Or maybe I'm giving myself too much credit.
Instead of following Issei like she had been all the way out of the school, she immediately turns a different way and heads off into the city. Which shows another weakness in our planning. Everybody was positioned to cover everywhere we expected the angel to be. As a consequence nobody but Sona, Tsubaki, and I were in any position to follow her.
I've spent so much time training my personal combat abilities, I'd never really thought about working with anybody else. It's beginning to look like a lack of tactical training is a major weakness I'm going to have to do something about. I have no idea how I'll do that.
Where do you even go for that kind of training if you're unwilling to actually join a military?
Problems for later.
With a frustrated curse under her breath, Sona takes off after the disguised Raynare, leaving Tsubaki and me no choice but to follow along. The fallen angel is doing us one favor though. It quickly becomes apparent that she's heading for the abandoned church where the fallen have set up shop. The church is on the edge of town, in a run down and sparsely occupied area, which means finding a place for a confrontation shouldn't be hard.
Which is making me slightly nervous. A feeling that only grows stronger as we get further from the areas of town that could be considered the devil's center of power.
I really hope that Tsubaki has used that communication magic to call in the rest of the devils. Because the only thing I can think as Raynare turns down the quintessential dark alleyway, complete with random dumpster, is that this is all about to go very wrong.
Or very right from the point of view of getting myself a shiny new pair of wings.
In either case my hand drifts to Sclamhaire's hilt over my shoulder.
To my utter lack of surprise the shape of Yummo Amano is standing half way down the alleyway, a little ways past the dumpster, facing back towards us.
Sona undaunted takes a couple of steps forward, "I am..."
"A filthy devil." The girl growls with a sneer that utterly changes the character of her face. Her kind and demure visage twists into an expression of disgust. With her words, her human disguise shreds. Her school uniform fades away like smoke in the wind, replaced with tight leather... fetish wear.
It honestly covers more skin than I expected.
Her wings spread out behind her, and a bar of light gathers in her hand. I'd call it a spear, but honestly it doesn't have that kind of detail to it. With a snarl and a flap of her wings, the fallen angel rockets down the alleyway, her light weapon wound up, and swinging for Sona's head.
Sona locks up. It's honestly not surprising. As far as I know, the closest Sona has been to a fight is a chess game. I don't think that she's ever even been in a rating game. Tsubaki is slightly more on the ball, but both of us were following Sona several steps back, and instead of moving her first action is swearing. I'm not sure, queen or not, that she can accelerate quickly enough to do anything anyway.
I, on the other hand, have had my hand on Sclamhaire's hilt since the moment we turned into the alley. The moment fetish-angel starts moving, I draw back my mental bow string to launch myself in between dominatrix-angel and Sona. A second pluck of the string slams me to a halt, and my internals against the inside of my rib cage.
I've gotten a lot better with my TK over the last six months, but using it as a movement technique still has fundamental problems. I'm half convinced that the only reason that hopping vampires can use it that way without care, is that they're desiccated corpses.
Sclamhaire sings out of her sheath on my back, and I get a momentary perfect look of dominatrix-angel's shocked expression. An expression that gets even more exaggerated when Sclamhaire crashes into the light spear. Which promptly explodes into little fragments of light that go flying everywhere, and providing me with a surprisingly small amount of mana.
Still better than nothing.
Sona is protected from the flying light magic shrapnel by my much larger armored form. Tsubaki is less lucky, judging by the cry of pain from her, and the way she staggers behind Sona and me.
Before fetish-angel can mentally catch up with the destruction of her spear, I plant an armored boot in her stomach, and kick her back down the alley. I'm a little disappointed she doesn't hit the ground, but a flap of her wings stabilizes her in the air, letting her land on her feet.
I take the moment of pause, as Raynare and I study each other, to pull my hood up and take a quick look at my opponent. All the biblical factions are made from the same basic mold, if with very different flavors. On the other hand, as an angel she has to have been made by god, which means no special enhancements from evil pieces. So, strong, and tough, though only baseline. The wings, though, mean she'll be fast as hell, as I've already seen. Magically she's a one trick pony. Light spears are the only kind of magic that I've ever heard of an angel using. Any kind of angel. Only having two wings, though, none of that will be all that impressive. Where I'll start having problems is experience. Raynare was made to fight in the war in heaven, and has been causing problems, and surviving them, ever since. So strangely my biggest worry will be being out maneuvered for a change. Still, she's literally the very first villain in the anime, so she should be weak as hell. Noob Issei beat her after all.
She takes the same pause to form another light spear and glare at me. Behind me I can hear Tsubaki pulling her still frozen king further from the fight. That seems to snap Sona out of her shock enough to try to object, but Tsubaki seems able to convince her that I'll be fine.
"What the fuck are you?" the fallen growls at me, drawing my focus back to her.
My only reply is a shrug.
She doesn't seem to like that answer, and flings the light spear at me before making another and flying down the alleyway after it. I move to swat the spear out of the air, and I'm mildly surprised as the spear hit's the flat and vanishes into Sclamhaire's blade like it's falling into a hole.
That gives me a much more significant boost of mana.
I'm not so surprised that it stops me from using some of that new mana to telekinetically slam the dumpster sideways into fetish-angel, checking her charge by pinning her to the alley wall. It only slows her down for a few seconds, but it breaks her inertia, and gives me time to close on her.
Only moments after being hit, Raynare rips herself free of the dumpster with a scream of rage. A scream that turns to a panicked shriek as she has to fling herself sideways to avoid Sclamhaire removing something important.
Her experience shows clearly, though, as it only takes her moments to recover, form another light spear, and fling herself at me again. We engage in a series of rapid exchanges back and forth, Raynare's almost berserk aggression driving her at me again and again. Every time Sclamhaire touches one of the light spears it explodes into fragments. Which results in my wonderful sword absorbing a frustratingly small amount of power.
Raynare is... well, she's good. Clearly trained and has the expected boat load of experience. She's not that good though. She's better than any of the devils I've seen, much better than Kiba and Shirone were before I got my hands on them. She's probably better than either of them are now. Though I think the two of them together could probably take her. At least if they didn't have to worry about the effects of light magic. She's got a seemingly endless bag of tricks, but she applies them almost by rote. Just throwing things at me until one of them works.
I'm picking up a lot of new things though, which is nice.
My biggest problem right now is actually the fragility of her weapons. Normally I could use Sclamhaire's flat and cross guard to interact with a weapon that I don't want to destroy. Binding the weapon up and holding the enemy still to give myself an opening to use my athame with my off hand.
But light spears, being energy constructs, seem to catastrophically destabilize with any touch, unable to withstand any of its structure being drawn away by Sclamhaire. Which means that fetish angel won't hold still so I can stab her, and she's too quick to stab while she isn't.
It's frustrating.
Fortunately I'm not the only one getting frustrated. Fetish-angel's swings are getting wilder, more forceful. Which allows me to dodge more, which just seems to make her angrier. At this rate, fragile weapons or not, an opening will come, I just have to wait for it.
I don't even have to wait that long. I parry a thrust to the side prompting Raynare to spin, her flaring wings keeping me at a distance while her back is turned. While I can't see what she's doing, she forms another light spear, following through with her spin she brings it down at me in a powerful overhead swing.
It's actually a decent ambush maneuver, and it might have even worked on somebody else. It probably has worked on others in the past. I, however, can feel the light aspected mana gathering in her hands, and can hear the position and movement of her arms. So instead of being taken by surprise, I simply pivot off the line of her attack.
Her spear crashes into the ground with a huge amount of force sending chips of concrete scattering in every direction. I drop Sclamhaire letting her fall point first into the ground, sinking halfway the length of her blade. My newly freed right hand grabs Raynare's wrist, holding her weapon in its current radically out of place position.
Yanking her forward slightly, I also bring my head down with force. The edge of my hood, acting like the inch thick plate of faerie metal it is to the rest of the world, crashes into the fallen angel's face. Her nose explodes in blood, rocking her head backwards, her eyes glazed and stunned.
My left hand pulls my athame free, and holding it backhanded, I slam it into the angel's chest. The blade slides between Raynare's ribs and into her heart. Her eyes meet mine for a moment, the look of shock consuming her features. Then they go slack.
Wings.
The Script on my athame activates. The angels wings dissolve into something like smoke, and are pulled into her back. Into, and then through, her body and into my athame. The rush of a trait flows up my tattoos and settles into place.
I let Raynare's body go. It's fall to the ground pulling my athame free of it's chest. For a moment nothing happens, then I'm doubled over by a feeling in my back that for a moment I mistake for pain. The feeling surges once... twice... And then two new appendages erupt out of my back.
For a moment my balance is shot to hell. I stagger backwards, my arms and my new wings flail yanking my center of balance every which way even as my wings crash into the walls of the alley. Something that I feel like should hurt, but doesn't. The resultant sensation is almost... ticklish. Quickly enough though, my physical talent comes through for me and I manage to stabilize myself and get basic control of my wings. Which means I also get my first look at them.
The first thing that pops into my head when I bring them forward to where I can see them is that they're huge. I read somewhere that a birds wingspan has to be twice their body length at minimum if they're going to be able to fly. No angel or devil that I'd ever seen has a wing span more than half that, usually less. Each of my wings is at least half again my own height, giving me a wingspan of something like eighteen feet.
Their color is a glossy black, which I kind of expected given what I'd taken them from, but where the light hits them I can see extremely dark red highlights. The same color as my hair essentially. What really catches my eye though, is the vivid red irregular strip of color along the bottom edges of the wings. Like the feathers there have been dipped in blood.
Along the top of my wings lay the armatures that normally extended when my armor started to vent energy. Given that energy is normally expelled from the bottom of those armatures in a shape that looks a lot like wings, I have to wonder how that's going to work now.
A surprised inhale from behind me knocks me out of my wing (I have wings!) induced daze. With a little bit of work I get my new appendages to fold against my back, and turn around. Sona and Tsubaki have both peeked around the entrance of the alley, before stepping back into the alleyway.
"Ericka-chan?" Sona asks hesitantly, "Those are..." She trails off hesitantly.
"New." I finish for her, "Just got them. Shinra-san, are you alright?" She's standing behind Sona clutching her right shoulder, blood oozing from between her fingers.
"I will be." The queen assures me through gritted teeth, "Though it may take time." Because of the light magic, I finish for her in my head.
Sona takes the moment given by our brief exchange to somewhat pull herself together. At least superficially, "Unfortunately we're not done yet. There are three more of them." I can see a rather spectacular breakdown being held back by a thin veneer of control and duty.
That does remind me though...
Tsubaki frowns, "We'll have to call in the rest of the peerage. Rias and her peerage too, probably." She stops talking for a moment to grimace, "I'm not going to be able to participate in this fight either. I can't feel my arm at all. Light magic... What are you doing." The queen interrupts herself to look at me.
I pull my Kuoh map from where I stashed it in my armor skirt, and quickly open it up. It only takes a moment to find the three black dots representing the remaining fallen clustered together in the abandoned church. Probably waiting for Raynare to arrive.
"Don't worry about the other fallen." I tell them as I pull a popsicle stick densely packed with Script on both sides, "I've got this."
"What do you mean, you've..." Sona starts to ask, but I don't wait for her to finish speaking before I snap the stick.
The popsicle stick is a new remote trigger Script that I figured out over the last six months. The script tags that I had Mia stealthily plant around the abandoned church form a Script that isn't on the edge of activating, but is constantly trying to activate.
The only thing stopping it from doing so is a second Script that's only purpose is to keep the first from going off. A Script that is sympathetically linked to the popsicle stick I just broke.
So the stick breaks.
The Script breaks.
And the primary Script can finally activate.
The air is filled with a subsonic hum so low that I can barely hear it. All three of us can feel it though. I keep my eyes on the map, and smile hugely when the three black dots vanish from it. The fallen, along with everything else inside the area defined by the tags, are aerosolized. Ripped apart and turned to dust by intensely focused sound. What we're hearing, or feeling, is just what's leaking past the Script's containment.
Which it shouldn't be doing, I'll have to look into that later.
The hum that the two devils can only detect by feeling it in their chest cavity continues for some thirty seconds, before the Script tags burn themselves out. I designed that Script to be thorough.
"There. Angel problem solved." I tell the girls with a smile.
"What..." Sona pauses to swallow hard, and lick her lips, "What was that?"
I grin at them, "Proof that preparation beats power." The only response I get is a soft 'oh' from Sona. Tsubaki grins a little and nudges her king with her working elbow, which for some reason I choose not to think about, prompts a blush to stain Sona's cheeks.
After a moment Sona clears her throat, "We should get back to the others and tell them what happened."
I nod, and all of us start back the way we came. Just before we reach the entrance to the alley I stop short, "Before we go?" The two devils turn back to me confused. I jerk a thumb over my shoulder at my new wings, "Can somebody tell me how to put these away?"
- Location
- Gotham
Someone has a crush
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Sona's had a crush for a while now.
It's more of a radiator, as you'll see in later chapters. She gets all the power she needs when fighting magical beings with her all-devouring sword.
Besides, she's explicitly avoiding species magic in this setting (and arguably failing, considering the wings materialization, but if that fails out in another multiverse, you just get no wings instead of get no power or explode).
Besides, she's explicitly avoiding species magic in this setting (and arguably failing, considering the wings materialization, but if that fails out in another multiverse, you just get no wings instead of get no power or explode).
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- Location
- Gotham
Is the harem protagonist power real in this story?
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Ericka isn't sure but apparently she's found some things while researching the supernatural that don't ease her worries. So she operates as if it is a thing with the purpose of avoiding it.
I have say, I glad she did the filming with Serafall on her Magical Girl Levi-tan show, not something you see often since its show Serafall magical girl persona as a important job more than a shallow cosplay outfit.
As cute Sona is, I do ship Ericka and Serafall, imagine if she stays and the reaction to Satan Leviathan's mysterious part human girlfriend later in the future due to her appearance in the tv series.
Say what's so special about Yasaka's bundle of nine hairs, one from each of her tails, tied together by one of her whiskers?
As cute Sona is, I do ship Ericka and Serafall, imagine if she stays and the reaction to Satan Leviathan's mysterious part human girlfriend later in the future due to her appearance in the tv series.
Say what's so special about Yasaka's bundle of nine hairs, one from each of her tails, tied together by one of her whiskers?
Book 1 - Paper and Blood
- Location
- California
"All right, I think I've been patient enough." Sona says aggressively, hands on hips, once we've reached the school again. Both peerages have congregated in the student council room for a change. Sona has largely regained her composure, or at least she appears to have. I can still smell the edges of panic on her though, "I want an explanation!"
"What does Ericka sensei have to explain?" Kiba asks slowly. Clearly uncertain about the rather emotional edge that the usually stoic devil king is displaying.
"She has wings!" Sona squeaks, pointing at me.
There's a long moment of silence, then almost as one every devil in the room turns to look at me.
I stare back at them. For a moment I'm tempted to just keep the staring contest going until one of them actually asks a question. That wouldn't really be helpful though. So instead, with a sigh, I do the reverse of what Tsubaki had talked me through to put my new wings away in the first place.
No matter what it looks like, the wings don't actually fold up into my body somehow. When not visible, they actually cease to be. At least physically. I'm sure that when I get home and can run an analysis Script on myself I'll find them written out in my Script, even when not apparently there. Still, manifesting them is a feeling of extension. Of spreading my new limbs out from my back.
It takes me a little while to get the mental action right, but then my huge, feathered, black and blood tipped wings spread out from my back, my armor automatically adjusting to allow them out and protect them. One of them also immediately smacks into the wall I'm closer to, which almost knocks me over, pushing me in the opposite direction.
This leads to a bit of flailing, nearly smacking one of Sona's pawns, but after a bit of awkwardness I manage to get them folded properly on my back. The... wrist I guess, of the wings, extending past my head, and the tips of the feathers nearly dragging on the ground. After getting them settled, I glance up at the devils to gauge their reactions.
Most of them are just staring at them wide eyed, but there are a few more specific reactions. Shirone is staring at them the same way I've seen her staring at an especially soft pillow in a spot of sunlight. Akeno's face is twisted up into a grimace, like she doesn't really know what to make of what she's seeing. Rias has paled slightly but seems to be holding it together, more or less.
The first of them to recover is Shirone. Before any of the other's in the room can start demanding answers or freaking out, she gets to the important questions, "Are they soft?"
"I..." I hesitate and glance over my shoulder at my right wing, which I also extend slightly so I can see it easier, "I don't know." With my armor on I can't exactly touch them to check even if I'd thought of it, which I hadn't.
"Can I find out?" Shirone's tails are whipping back and forth in feline excitement.
"Um... Sure?"
The nekoshu devil scampers forward, and face plants/head butts straight into my right wing, which is still slightly extended from my examining it. There's a moment's pause, then an extremely loud rumbling purr fills the air. With no hesitation Shirone reaches out and grabs the armored edge of my wing and pulls it around her like a blanket, completely vanishing into the feathered mass.
The room is silent, the only sound being Shirone's purring and a murmured, "Warm." That I'm pretty sure nobody else could hear.
I cough, and turn back to the rest of the room, "Well... that just happened."
"Why do you have wings." Akeno gets out through gritted teeth.
I sigh. Some part of me doesn't really want to explain this. I can't help but think that the devils with unique abilities will be nervous around me afterwards. Granted most of those are in Rias' peerage so I don't care over much. But Shirone or Kiba refusing to have anything to do with me would hurt.
Another part of me is sort of amazed that I've managed to live here this long and not explained it. I mean, sure, right at first I wouldn't have answered any questions. But after a while, Sona could have had at least a basic explanation of my oddities for the asking. She never asked though. Which I have to admit endeared her to me a little bit.
Now though, "I stole them." All the devils look at me blankly, "From the fallen angel I just killed? Surely you must have wondered how I, as a human, can keep up with all of you." Kiba snorts when I say 'keep up', but otherwise doesn't comment, "This is how. I steal things from what I kill. I can't take skills or knowledge, but any inherent trait is fair game."
"Your strength?" One of Sona's pawn's asks.
"Took it from a troll." I say with a shrug. Interestingly my wings move along with the motion of my shoulders. Something that gets an irritated noise from Shirone, who's still hidden in my right wing.
"That's how you recover so quickly, as well." Tsubaki comments slowly, like she's finally been shown the picture on the box of a puzzle she's been working on for months.
I nod to show she got that right.
"Your senses?" Kiba asks, having been frustrated more than once by my ability to keep track of everything he does in a spar, no matter what he tries.
"Mostly taken from mundane animals."
"Is that how you got so good at fighting?" Tsubaki asks.
"Sort of." I hedge, "Remember when I said I rescued Yasaka's daughter from a kidnapping attempt and a coup?" They all nod except for Issei who's looking increasingly confused. I do my best to ignore him, "My reward for that was being allowed to take the physical talent of every tengu involved in the incident." The silence I get from that revelation is deafening. I just keep talking through it though, the last thing I want to do is answer questions about how many tengu that was, "That being said, I started training at the age of five, and worked at it obsessively for my entire life. That, and I've had some really good teachers."
Rias finally joins the conversation, looking at me suspiciously. Something I'm confused about, until she asks her question, "Like who exactly?"
"Um... Ku'uaki Ke'Kua'Okolani."
Kiba drops into his seat like his legs just gave out, and the other martially inclined devils are having similar reactions of disbelief and envy. I manage to not smirk at their reactions.
"Then the therapist you said you could recommend...?" Rias asks, sounding faint.
"Is his sister, Pua Ke'Kua'Okolani, yes." Now the magically inclined devils are giving me similar looks.
"Um... who are these guys?" Issei asks into the silence. Which fortunately starts people up again.
Before they can get into that though, I cut in, "Speaking of teachers I'm going to need somebody to teach me how to use these things." I twitch my wings slightly, earning myself another disgruntled cat noise.
"I can..." Rias starts, and then abruptly stops from the sheer amount of venom in the glare that Sona sends her. I can't hold back the smirk at that point either. I'd say that who my teacher would be for flying isn't really in doubt.
The meeting wraps up pretty quickly at that point. I leave, and the devils stay behind. I catch a bit of Rias explaining who Pua and Ku are to Issei. I miss most of it, but I do catch her saying that if her brother had any choice at all, he would avoid fighting the Ke'Kua'Okolani siblings together. Especially if it involved fighting them on Hawaii itself.
Getting home, I'm almost giddy.
This is finally a chance I've been waiting for for a while. I let myself in and, as expected, Mia is sitting on the couch.
"So, how did it go?" She asks me, without turning away from her current singing show.
"Pretty well, actually. There were a few hiccups, but largely went without a hitch. The worst part was having to explain my trait stealing to them. I left them to talk about me behind my back so they can work things out. I did get a prize though." I tell her, moving in front of the couch between her and the TV.
Mia looks a little annoyed with me for blocking the TV but plays along, "All right, what did you get."
With no warning I extend my wings as far as I can in the confines of my living room as fast as I can.
Mia squawks and goes backwards over the back of the couch.
I can't help it, I start laughing hard enough to double over clutching my stomach.
"What the fuck!?" Mia shrieks, peaking over the tipped over couch.
I just laugh harder.
I win!
I so regret winning.
I hit the ground with a crash. It takes a moment to get my breath back, so for a few moments all I can do is glare at Mia as she laughs at me. Getting a win on the person who's about to be your flight and aerial combat instructor, was perhaps not my greatest idea ever.
Learning the way angel wings can enable one to fly by basically... just willing it to happen, isn't a difficult lesson to learn. It's really just apply power and go. They're even amazingly efficient at it. Not so efficient that I won't largely be relying on mechanical flight though. Still that means that I don't spend a lot of time as Sona's student, and quickly enough I'm handed off to Mia.
Proper aerial maneuvering and mechanical flight tengu style is somewhat more difficult. By which I mean insanely more difficult. Well, basic flight isn't that hard. Harder than the angel version, but not insanely difficult. Learning how to maneuver in the air for combat, especially close quarters combat, is an entirely different story. I don't know why I'm surprised, but it's very much like learning footwork for fighting on the ground.
Just in three dimensions.
So before Mia lets me even so much as flap, she starts me drilling wing positions. Standing on the ground she has me snapping through wing positions for banking, juking, sliding, rising, falling, barrel rolling, alion rolling, hovering, back winging, and a dozen other maneuvers that I have to get to the point of instinct before anything else can happen.
Getting to the point where Mia would let me into the air only took a couple of weeks. Thank you massively stacked tengu physical talent. Of course, all that means is that I could start actually performing the maneuvers in the air.
Which is why I'm crashing now.
Mia tells me that I should just be glad that, thanks to my troll muscle and mana network, I don't have to do exercises to make sure my wings are strong enough to actually lift me, never mind perform complex maneuvers. Apparently wing ups are a thing. She makes sure that I know all the proper exercises, what they work on, and when and how to do them. Just in case I have to teach some other newly winged being how to fly at some point I guess? But I don't have to do them myself.
With a groan, I drag myself to my feet and stretch my wings out as far as I can, just to make sure I didn't injure them with my litho breaking. The wealth of sensations that I get from my wings is still new, and a little overwhelming.
The day after getting my wings, after taking pictures and sending them to Pua, Ku, and Sarah, I ran an analysis Script on myself. Pua's convinced me that I should run one after every trait acquisition if I can find any way to at all. At least I'm getting very familiar with my own Script, that's got to be useful for something.
Still, calling what angels, and now I, have growing out of our backs 'wings', almost seems insulting. Feathered appendages for flight is the least of what they are. Almost like it's a function added as an afterthought. Like Yahweh was designing the angels, and finished designing these and just said, 'You know, since they're going to be back there anyway...'.
And what are they?
A giant energy collection and filtering system.
Holy magic is created by faith. It's why it's so rare, and generally only gods can use it, angels being a huge exception. Which leads back to the wings. An angel's wings' purpose is to collect holy magic and faith directed at them, and pull it into themselves.
This is why angels seem to get stronger the more wings they have extended. They are. They're literally collecting more power.
It's also why Heaven and the Church freak out so hard on anybody who knows that god is dead. As long as this isn't known, people keep praying. Keep generating faith and holy magic. Which at this point is probably all that's keeping the angels going.
Suddenly, what I thought was a giant overreaction by the church anytime anybody even hints at knowing the truth, seems a lot more reasonable.
Of course, none of this means anything to me. Nobody is praying to me, nor am a member of a group that is prayed to in general. To me they really are just wings. That doesn't change the fact that when they're spread, I can feel every bit of mana that isn't what they're supposed to collect slide through them.
It was a little distracting... okay, really distracting at first. But by now I've largely learned to tune it out. For a little while, I entertained the idea that if I could find a way to adjust them slightly I could have found a better method of collecting mana than my pressure Script.
The things are so god damned complicated though, that I wouldn't know where to start. Not to mention that there are still large parts of them that I can't make heads or tails of. Like where do they go when I put them away?
I don't know.
I mean, I found the Script that describes what happens, but I don't know what most of those symbols even are! Never mind figuring out what they do all together, and how that interacts with the rest of it. Until I know exactly what everything is and how it works I'm not touching any of it.
Besides, my ritual only applies to adding new traits. If I screw up something that's already there, I'm pretty sure I'm on my own. Just thinking about trying sets off a little voice screaming in my head. A voice that sounds a lot like an irate Pua.
"Ready to give it another go?" Mia asks, having finally contained her laughter. Mostly at least.
I check the time and shake my head, "I think we're done for the day. We've been at it for four hours already, and it's almost time for Shirone and Kiba to get here."
"How long do you think Kiba's going to take to lose his temper this time?" Mia asks with a smirk.
The only answer I can give her is a groan.
Kiba's practice sword swishes past my head as I lean out of the way, prompting a growl of frustration from the devil knight. His next swing I just step back from. The follow up thrust is better, coming unexpectedly from the middle of the slash, but all I have to do is turn sideways to avoid it.
Today's exercise serves two purposes. Their job is to attack me, however they like, for five minutes while I do nothing but defend. The purpose is to get them to start thinking ahead. To plan out attacks that will prevent me from avoiding them. Thus, why I'm only defending, so they can fully concentrate on planning their attack.
The second purpose is to remove Kiba's favorite tactic for trying to get a hit in. That is to take a hit to land one. Something that I've been trying to break him of, for almost as long as he's been my student. I'm pretty sure it's this that's driving him nuts right now.
He is getting better though.
His next swing comes in diagonally at my head, which I evade by sliding my foot and leaning. Then he twists his hips, and cuts at me parallel to the ground. Too high to jump over from my current position, and the only way I can just get under it would leave me flat on the ground.
Not a good place to be.
Fortunately I'm not limited to just dodging. A twist of my hips lets me plant the palm of my hand against the flat of his blade, boosting it high enough that I can get under it without leaving myself vulnerable. Even if that does require a 360 degree spin with my torso parallel to the ground. A move that looks like something straight out of an action movie, and yet is a totally legitimate technique. Since I have control of his sword at that point, and my feet never leave the ground.
Kiba stares at me as I return to an upright posture, letting his sword drop, "Is this even possible?"
I sigh. Instead of answering him, I feint a low kick to his forward leg. He lifts his foot to avoid it, which means he's not exactly capable of evading when I lunge forward instead of finishing the kick, and plant a hand on his chest gently pushing him over.
He lands on his back, and goes limp, "Right." He sighs, "Can I take a breath to think about this, Sensei?"
"Sure thing, Kiba. Take a break. You almost had me with that last one though." One of the things I really like about Kiba, is that while he may get frustrated, and even lose his temper on occasion, he never gets really angry. He always calms quickly, listens to what I say, and tries to apply my advice. He doesn't always do it well, but that's more from the rigidity of his thinking than any lack of talent on his part.
I'm pretty sure that's a problem caused by his survivor's guilt. But he hasn't opened up to me about his past at all, so there's not a lot I can do about it. He's improved a lot though. I'm pretty sure that the trick that I used the first time we fought, punching him while he's saluting, wouldn't work now. And not just because he wouldn't salute like that outside of a formal duel any more.
Leaving Kiba to his thoughts, I turn to my other student with a smile. While I'm proud of Kiba, and I think I've succeeded in splitting my attention evenly between the two of them evenly, Shirone is my favorite. The fact that I find her adorable as she takes up the pseudo boxing stance she's found she likes, is good evidence of this. She squares up with me, and immediately goes on the attack. For some reason I find fists much harder to avoid than swords.
Might just be a mental thing.
My problem... sort of problem, is that now with some actual technique to her, Shirone hits a lot harder than I can take. Kiba with a wooden sword is bruising, which my regen makes not an issue.
I'm kind of worried that Shirone will break something if she lands a hit.
The little cat dances. Her fists fly from every direction and every angle. She bounces in and out of range. Everything I taught her to do, she does. Sure her combinations are too simplistic, she's falling into patterns with her foot work, and we'll need to work on getting her to remember that she's got elbows, knees, and feet. But there's always going to be things to work on.
Still, after the first few punches, this serves as excellent training for the strength nullifying defense that Ku taught me. Which says more about how she's improved than anything else.
I'm proud of her.
Both of them really.
We go, switching back and forth between my two students, long enough that by the time I get home the sun is going down. Mia is in the kitchen when I get in. She's going through the cabinets looking for something to snack on, I assume.
I roll my eyes, and head for my workshop, "If you eat my chocolate I'm making you cook your own food for a week."
I hear her freeze in the kitchen in the middle of opening a cupboard. I assume she's trying to decide if the reward is worth the punishment.
"Will I be cooking for both of us?" Mia calls, sounding uncertain.
"No. Only you will suffer your cooking." The whine and her slouching walk out of the kitchen tells me I've successfully defended my chocolate stash.
This time.
I unlock the door to my workshop and re-lock it behind me. Locking the door is a new thing. Previously I didn't worry too much about anybody getting in. Anybody who did would first have to get through the house wards, then be able to make sense of the Script all over the papers. And anybody who could make sense of the Script lying around would know that it would probably be easier to make their own from scratch than trying to adapt mine.
So really no point in keeping the door locked.
Now though...
I've cleared the center of the workshop, and set down a new table for what's probably the most important, and dangerous, experiment that I've never done. The new table is round and painstakingly carved with Script and inlaid with silver. With the carefully regulated power gathering Scripts, emphasis on the plural, to ensure nothing burns out. This is a Script that I've spent an inordinate amount of time making sure will never fail.
Hovering over the table is a globe sized sphere of Gap.
Realizing that the Gap isn't a presence, but an absence, was really kind of mind blowing. The Gap isn't something that I can draw in and contain. That doesn't mean I can't get a controlled and isolated sample of it to work with. The purpose of the Script on the table is to drive back the Script defining the universe, to create a small space that imitates the larger Gap by being a place where reality isn't. And keep anything not deliberately pushed into it out.
Now I have something I can work with.
Granted, I've made no progress on getting anything to survive in my mini-Gap. So far everything I've stuck in there has just... come apart. In an area where the fundamental forces of the universe don't apply. Where the very idea of matter, even down to the smallest quarks, is absent.
Everything that enters the globe just seems to cease. I can't even examine what's happening in there, because light fares no better than anything else.
That's okay though. I didn't really expect this to be easy, and I'm just getting started. I'll figure something out.
Moving around the table I carefully examine the Script to make sure it shows no signs of burning out. Sure, theoretically, if the script fails reality will rush back into the 'vacuum', causing no problems or damage.
Theoretically.
Not a chance I'm willing to take, though.
After making sure that the table has no problems, I move on to the next part of the experiment. A stack of wooden dowels, each covered in a different Script intended to keep them intact when exposed to my mini-Gap. Next to those, is a pile of dowel stubs of already failed tries.
I don't really expect any of these to work fully, but if I can get something that is just destroyed slightly less. Or in a different way. Or really any reaction at all, it would at least give me a starting place.
So far nothing though.
With a sigh I grab the next dowel, double checking the number I've written on the end that will survive, so I can keep track of which Script is which. Noting which I've got, I insert the other end of the dowel into the mini-Gap. Checking the damage I find again that every part of it that touched the sphere is just gone. I can't even really describe what the edge of the now shorter dowel looks like. It's... fuzzy? Hazy? If I look really close and squint, I can almost convince myself that I can see the Script that defines the dowel unraveling into the air from where it's existence has been frayed.
It'll solidify, or recover, or whatever it does, in the next few minutes. After it settles the new edge of the dowel will be rough, almost like smoke that froze. Which is an interesting effect, but not something useful in the slightest.
I toss the new dowel stub onto the pile of the previous ones, and reach for the next when I pause.
I could swear I heard something.
A moment later I hear it again. A soft scratching sound. Turning my head, I quickly narrow down the source of the noise to the curtained window.
I blink for a moment, only moving when the scratching comes again louder this time. Moving to the window, I push the curtain aside, and find myself slightly stunned at what I see through the glass.
A slightly larger than normal house cat, with something carried carefully in its mouth sitting on the window sill. Looking up at me through the window, the cat reaches out a fore paw and scratches at the window frame again.
Feeling slightly numb, I unlatch the window and pull it open. The cat saunters through the window and looks up at me, waiting. I hold out a hand, and the cat drops what's in her mouth into my hand. Giving her a scratch behind the ears and a few pats, the cat head butts my chest and meows. A meow that I try to convince myself doesn't sound like the word, "Princess." Then she turns and vanishes back out the window.
I pull the window closed behind her and turn back to my chair. Rolling away from the central table to the desk where I actually write out my Scripts, I take a closer look at what the cat delivered to me. Carefully, I uncrumple what appears to be a wadded up piece of toilet paper.
Written in what smells like blood on the paper are the words, Hide your aura.
...
Cait?
"What does Ericka sensei have to explain?" Kiba asks slowly. Clearly uncertain about the rather emotional edge that the usually stoic devil king is displaying.
"She has wings!" Sona squeaks, pointing at me.
There's a long moment of silence, then almost as one every devil in the room turns to look at me.
I stare back at them. For a moment I'm tempted to just keep the staring contest going until one of them actually asks a question. That wouldn't really be helpful though. So instead, with a sigh, I do the reverse of what Tsubaki had talked me through to put my new wings away in the first place.
No matter what it looks like, the wings don't actually fold up into my body somehow. When not visible, they actually cease to be. At least physically. I'm sure that when I get home and can run an analysis Script on myself I'll find them written out in my Script, even when not apparently there. Still, manifesting them is a feeling of extension. Of spreading my new limbs out from my back.
It takes me a little while to get the mental action right, but then my huge, feathered, black and blood tipped wings spread out from my back, my armor automatically adjusting to allow them out and protect them. One of them also immediately smacks into the wall I'm closer to, which almost knocks me over, pushing me in the opposite direction.
This leads to a bit of flailing, nearly smacking one of Sona's pawns, but after a bit of awkwardness I manage to get them folded properly on my back. The... wrist I guess, of the wings, extending past my head, and the tips of the feathers nearly dragging on the ground. After getting them settled, I glance up at the devils to gauge their reactions.
Most of them are just staring at them wide eyed, but there are a few more specific reactions. Shirone is staring at them the same way I've seen her staring at an especially soft pillow in a spot of sunlight. Akeno's face is twisted up into a grimace, like she doesn't really know what to make of what she's seeing. Rias has paled slightly but seems to be holding it together, more or less.
The first of them to recover is Shirone. Before any of the other's in the room can start demanding answers or freaking out, she gets to the important questions, "Are they soft?"
"I..." I hesitate and glance over my shoulder at my right wing, which I also extend slightly so I can see it easier, "I don't know." With my armor on I can't exactly touch them to check even if I'd thought of it, which I hadn't.
"Can I find out?" Shirone's tails are whipping back and forth in feline excitement.
"Um... Sure?"
The nekoshu devil scampers forward, and face plants/head butts straight into my right wing, which is still slightly extended from my examining it. There's a moment's pause, then an extremely loud rumbling purr fills the air. With no hesitation Shirone reaches out and grabs the armored edge of my wing and pulls it around her like a blanket, completely vanishing into the feathered mass.
The room is silent, the only sound being Shirone's purring and a murmured, "Warm." That I'm pretty sure nobody else could hear.
I cough, and turn back to the rest of the room, "Well... that just happened."
"Why do you have wings." Akeno gets out through gritted teeth.
I sigh. Some part of me doesn't really want to explain this. I can't help but think that the devils with unique abilities will be nervous around me afterwards. Granted most of those are in Rias' peerage so I don't care over much. But Shirone or Kiba refusing to have anything to do with me would hurt.
Another part of me is sort of amazed that I've managed to live here this long and not explained it. I mean, sure, right at first I wouldn't have answered any questions. But after a while, Sona could have had at least a basic explanation of my oddities for the asking. She never asked though. Which I have to admit endeared her to me a little bit.
Now though, "I stole them." All the devils look at me blankly, "From the fallen angel I just killed? Surely you must have wondered how I, as a human, can keep up with all of you." Kiba snorts when I say 'keep up', but otherwise doesn't comment, "This is how. I steal things from what I kill. I can't take skills or knowledge, but any inherent trait is fair game."
"Your strength?" One of Sona's pawn's asks.
"Took it from a troll." I say with a shrug. Interestingly my wings move along with the motion of my shoulders. Something that gets an irritated noise from Shirone, who's still hidden in my right wing.
"That's how you recover so quickly, as well." Tsubaki comments slowly, like she's finally been shown the picture on the box of a puzzle she's been working on for months.
I nod to show she got that right.
"Your senses?" Kiba asks, having been frustrated more than once by my ability to keep track of everything he does in a spar, no matter what he tries.
"Mostly taken from mundane animals."
"Is that how you got so good at fighting?" Tsubaki asks.
"Sort of." I hedge, "Remember when I said I rescued Yasaka's daughter from a kidnapping attempt and a coup?" They all nod except for Issei who's looking increasingly confused. I do my best to ignore him, "My reward for that was being allowed to take the physical talent of every tengu involved in the incident." The silence I get from that revelation is deafening. I just keep talking through it though, the last thing I want to do is answer questions about how many tengu that was, "That being said, I started training at the age of five, and worked at it obsessively for my entire life. That, and I've had some really good teachers."
Rias finally joins the conversation, looking at me suspiciously. Something I'm confused about, until she asks her question, "Like who exactly?"
"Um... Ku'uaki Ke'Kua'Okolani."
Kiba drops into his seat like his legs just gave out, and the other martially inclined devils are having similar reactions of disbelief and envy. I manage to not smirk at their reactions.
"Then the therapist you said you could recommend...?" Rias asks, sounding faint.
"Is his sister, Pua Ke'Kua'Okolani, yes." Now the magically inclined devils are giving me similar looks.
"Um... who are these guys?" Issei asks into the silence. Which fortunately starts people up again.
Before they can get into that though, I cut in, "Speaking of teachers I'm going to need somebody to teach me how to use these things." I twitch my wings slightly, earning myself another disgruntled cat noise.
"I can..." Rias starts, and then abruptly stops from the sheer amount of venom in the glare that Sona sends her. I can't hold back the smirk at that point either. I'd say that who my teacher would be for flying isn't really in doubt.
The meeting wraps up pretty quickly at that point. I leave, and the devils stay behind. I catch a bit of Rias explaining who Pua and Ku are to Issei. I miss most of it, but I do catch her saying that if her brother had any choice at all, he would avoid fighting the Ke'Kua'Okolani siblings together. Especially if it involved fighting them on Hawaii itself.
Getting home, I'm almost giddy.
This is finally a chance I've been waiting for for a while. I let myself in and, as expected, Mia is sitting on the couch.
"So, how did it go?" She asks me, without turning away from her current singing show.
"Pretty well, actually. There were a few hiccups, but largely went without a hitch. The worst part was having to explain my trait stealing to them. I left them to talk about me behind my back so they can work things out. I did get a prize though." I tell her, moving in front of the couch between her and the TV.
Mia looks a little annoyed with me for blocking the TV but plays along, "All right, what did you get."
With no warning I extend my wings as far as I can in the confines of my living room as fast as I can.
Mia squawks and goes backwards over the back of the couch.
I can't help it, I start laughing hard enough to double over clutching my stomach.
"What the fuck!?" Mia shrieks, peaking over the tipped over couch.
I just laugh harder.
I win!
###
I so regret winning.
I hit the ground with a crash. It takes a moment to get my breath back, so for a few moments all I can do is glare at Mia as she laughs at me. Getting a win on the person who's about to be your flight and aerial combat instructor, was perhaps not my greatest idea ever.
Learning the way angel wings can enable one to fly by basically... just willing it to happen, isn't a difficult lesson to learn. It's really just apply power and go. They're even amazingly efficient at it. Not so efficient that I won't largely be relying on mechanical flight though. Still that means that I don't spend a lot of time as Sona's student, and quickly enough I'm handed off to Mia.
Proper aerial maneuvering and mechanical flight tengu style is somewhat more difficult. By which I mean insanely more difficult. Well, basic flight isn't that hard. Harder than the angel version, but not insanely difficult. Learning how to maneuver in the air for combat, especially close quarters combat, is an entirely different story. I don't know why I'm surprised, but it's very much like learning footwork for fighting on the ground.
Just in three dimensions.
So before Mia lets me even so much as flap, she starts me drilling wing positions. Standing on the ground she has me snapping through wing positions for banking, juking, sliding, rising, falling, barrel rolling, alion rolling, hovering, back winging, and a dozen other maneuvers that I have to get to the point of instinct before anything else can happen.
Getting to the point where Mia would let me into the air only took a couple of weeks. Thank you massively stacked tengu physical talent. Of course, all that means is that I could start actually performing the maneuvers in the air.
Which is why I'm crashing now.
Mia tells me that I should just be glad that, thanks to my troll muscle and mana network, I don't have to do exercises to make sure my wings are strong enough to actually lift me, never mind perform complex maneuvers. Apparently wing ups are a thing. She makes sure that I know all the proper exercises, what they work on, and when and how to do them. Just in case I have to teach some other newly winged being how to fly at some point I guess? But I don't have to do them myself.
With a groan, I drag myself to my feet and stretch my wings out as far as I can, just to make sure I didn't injure them with my litho breaking. The wealth of sensations that I get from my wings is still new, and a little overwhelming.
The day after getting my wings, after taking pictures and sending them to Pua, Ku, and Sarah, I ran an analysis Script on myself. Pua's convinced me that I should run one after every trait acquisition if I can find any way to at all. At least I'm getting very familiar with my own Script, that's got to be useful for something.
Still, calling what angels, and now I, have growing out of our backs 'wings', almost seems insulting. Feathered appendages for flight is the least of what they are. Almost like it's a function added as an afterthought. Like Yahweh was designing the angels, and finished designing these and just said, 'You know, since they're going to be back there anyway...'.
And what are they?
A giant energy collection and filtering system.
Holy magic is created by faith. It's why it's so rare, and generally only gods can use it, angels being a huge exception. Which leads back to the wings. An angel's wings' purpose is to collect holy magic and faith directed at them, and pull it into themselves.
This is why angels seem to get stronger the more wings they have extended. They are. They're literally collecting more power.
It's also why Heaven and the Church freak out so hard on anybody who knows that god is dead. As long as this isn't known, people keep praying. Keep generating faith and holy magic. Which at this point is probably all that's keeping the angels going.
Suddenly, what I thought was a giant overreaction by the church anytime anybody even hints at knowing the truth, seems a lot more reasonable.
Of course, none of this means anything to me. Nobody is praying to me, nor am a member of a group that is prayed to in general. To me they really are just wings. That doesn't change the fact that when they're spread, I can feel every bit of mana that isn't what they're supposed to collect slide through them.
It was a little distracting... okay, really distracting at first. But by now I've largely learned to tune it out. For a little while, I entertained the idea that if I could find a way to adjust them slightly I could have found a better method of collecting mana than my pressure Script.
The things are so god damned complicated though, that I wouldn't know where to start. Not to mention that there are still large parts of them that I can't make heads or tails of. Like where do they go when I put them away?
I don't know.
I mean, I found the Script that describes what happens, but I don't know what most of those symbols even are! Never mind figuring out what they do all together, and how that interacts with the rest of it. Until I know exactly what everything is and how it works I'm not touching any of it.
Besides, my ritual only applies to adding new traits. If I screw up something that's already there, I'm pretty sure I'm on my own. Just thinking about trying sets off a little voice screaming in my head. A voice that sounds a lot like an irate Pua.
"Ready to give it another go?" Mia asks, having finally contained her laughter. Mostly at least.
I check the time and shake my head, "I think we're done for the day. We've been at it for four hours already, and it's almost time for Shirone and Kiba to get here."
"How long do you think Kiba's going to take to lose his temper this time?" Mia asks with a smirk.
The only answer I can give her is a groan.
###
Kiba's practice sword swishes past my head as I lean out of the way, prompting a growl of frustration from the devil knight. His next swing I just step back from. The follow up thrust is better, coming unexpectedly from the middle of the slash, but all I have to do is turn sideways to avoid it.
Today's exercise serves two purposes. Their job is to attack me, however they like, for five minutes while I do nothing but defend. The purpose is to get them to start thinking ahead. To plan out attacks that will prevent me from avoiding them. Thus, why I'm only defending, so they can fully concentrate on planning their attack.
The second purpose is to remove Kiba's favorite tactic for trying to get a hit in. That is to take a hit to land one. Something that I've been trying to break him of, for almost as long as he's been my student. I'm pretty sure it's this that's driving him nuts right now.
He is getting better though.
His next swing comes in diagonally at my head, which I evade by sliding my foot and leaning. Then he twists his hips, and cuts at me parallel to the ground. Too high to jump over from my current position, and the only way I can just get under it would leave me flat on the ground.
Not a good place to be.
Fortunately I'm not limited to just dodging. A twist of my hips lets me plant the palm of my hand against the flat of his blade, boosting it high enough that I can get under it without leaving myself vulnerable. Even if that does require a 360 degree spin with my torso parallel to the ground. A move that looks like something straight out of an action movie, and yet is a totally legitimate technique. Since I have control of his sword at that point, and my feet never leave the ground.
Kiba stares at me as I return to an upright posture, letting his sword drop, "Is this even possible?"
I sigh. Instead of answering him, I feint a low kick to his forward leg. He lifts his foot to avoid it, which means he's not exactly capable of evading when I lunge forward instead of finishing the kick, and plant a hand on his chest gently pushing him over.
He lands on his back, and goes limp, "Right." He sighs, "Can I take a breath to think about this, Sensei?"
"Sure thing, Kiba. Take a break. You almost had me with that last one though." One of the things I really like about Kiba, is that while he may get frustrated, and even lose his temper on occasion, he never gets really angry. He always calms quickly, listens to what I say, and tries to apply my advice. He doesn't always do it well, but that's more from the rigidity of his thinking than any lack of talent on his part.
I'm pretty sure that's a problem caused by his survivor's guilt. But he hasn't opened up to me about his past at all, so there's not a lot I can do about it. He's improved a lot though. I'm pretty sure that the trick that I used the first time we fought, punching him while he's saluting, wouldn't work now. And not just because he wouldn't salute like that outside of a formal duel any more.
Leaving Kiba to his thoughts, I turn to my other student with a smile. While I'm proud of Kiba, and I think I've succeeded in splitting my attention evenly between the two of them evenly, Shirone is my favorite. The fact that I find her adorable as she takes up the pseudo boxing stance she's found she likes, is good evidence of this. She squares up with me, and immediately goes on the attack. For some reason I find fists much harder to avoid than swords.
Might just be a mental thing.
My problem... sort of problem, is that now with some actual technique to her, Shirone hits a lot harder than I can take. Kiba with a wooden sword is bruising, which my regen makes not an issue.
I'm kind of worried that Shirone will break something if she lands a hit.
The little cat dances. Her fists fly from every direction and every angle. She bounces in and out of range. Everything I taught her to do, she does. Sure her combinations are too simplistic, she's falling into patterns with her foot work, and we'll need to work on getting her to remember that she's got elbows, knees, and feet. But there's always going to be things to work on.
Still, after the first few punches, this serves as excellent training for the strength nullifying defense that Ku taught me. Which says more about how she's improved than anything else.
I'm proud of her.
Both of them really.
###
We go, switching back and forth between my two students, long enough that by the time I get home the sun is going down. Mia is in the kitchen when I get in. She's going through the cabinets looking for something to snack on, I assume.
I roll my eyes, and head for my workshop, "If you eat my chocolate I'm making you cook your own food for a week."
I hear her freeze in the kitchen in the middle of opening a cupboard. I assume she's trying to decide if the reward is worth the punishment.
"Will I be cooking for both of us?" Mia calls, sounding uncertain.
"No. Only you will suffer your cooking." The whine and her slouching walk out of the kitchen tells me I've successfully defended my chocolate stash.
This time.
I unlock the door to my workshop and re-lock it behind me. Locking the door is a new thing. Previously I didn't worry too much about anybody getting in. Anybody who did would first have to get through the house wards, then be able to make sense of the Script all over the papers. And anybody who could make sense of the Script lying around would know that it would probably be easier to make their own from scratch than trying to adapt mine.
So really no point in keeping the door locked.
Now though...
I've cleared the center of the workshop, and set down a new table for what's probably the most important, and dangerous, experiment that I've never done. The new table is round and painstakingly carved with Script and inlaid with silver. With the carefully regulated power gathering Scripts, emphasis on the plural, to ensure nothing burns out. This is a Script that I've spent an inordinate amount of time making sure will never fail.
Hovering over the table is a globe sized sphere of Gap.
Realizing that the Gap isn't a presence, but an absence, was really kind of mind blowing. The Gap isn't something that I can draw in and contain. That doesn't mean I can't get a controlled and isolated sample of it to work with. The purpose of the Script on the table is to drive back the Script defining the universe, to create a small space that imitates the larger Gap by being a place where reality isn't. And keep anything not deliberately pushed into it out.
Now I have something I can work with.
Granted, I've made no progress on getting anything to survive in my mini-Gap. So far everything I've stuck in there has just... come apart. In an area where the fundamental forces of the universe don't apply. Where the very idea of matter, even down to the smallest quarks, is absent.
Everything that enters the globe just seems to cease. I can't even examine what's happening in there, because light fares no better than anything else.
That's okay though. I didn't really expect this to be easy, and I'm just getting started. I'll figure something out.
Moving around the table I carefully examine the Script to make sure it shows no signs of burning out. Sure, theoretically, if the script fails reality will rush back into the 'vacuum', causing no problems or damage.
Theoretically.
Not a chance I'm willing to take, though.
After making sure that the table has no problems, I move on to the next part of the experiment. A stack of wooden dowels, each covered in a different Script intended to keep them intact when exposed to my mini-Gap. Next to those, is a pile of dowel stubs of already failed tries.
I don't really expect any of these to work fully, but if I can get something that is just destroyed slightly less. Or in a different way. Or really any reaction at all, it would at least give me a starting place.
So far nothing though.
With a sigh I grab the next dowel, double checking the number I've written on the end that will survive, so I can keep track of which Script is which. Noting which I've got, I insert the other end of the dowel into the mini-Gap. Checking the damage I find again that every part of it that touched the sphere is just gone. I can't even really describe what the edge of the now shorter dowel looks like. It's... fuzzy? Hazy? If I look really close and squint, I can almost convince myself that I can see the Script that defines the dowel unraveling into the air from where it's existence has been frayed.
It'll solidify, or recover, or whatever it does, in the next few minutes. After it settles the new edge of the dowel will be rough, almost like smoke that froze. Which is an interesting effect, but not something useful in the slightest.
I toss the new dowel stub onto the pile of the previous ones, and reach for the next when I pause.
I could swear I heard something.
A moment later I hear it again. A soft scratching sound. Turning my head, I quickly narrow down the source of the noise to the curtained window.
I blink for a moment, only moving when the scratching comes again louder this time. Moving to the window, I push the curtain aside, and find myself slightly stunned at what I see through the glass.
A slightly larger than normal house cat, with something carried carefully in its mouth sitting on the window sill. Looking up at me through the window, the cat reaches out a fore paw and scratches at the window frame again.
Feeling slightly numb, I unlatch the window and pull it open. The cat saunters through the window and looks up at me, waiting. I hold out a hand, and the cat drops what's in her mouth into my hand. Giving her a scratch behind the ears and a few pats, the cat head butts my chest and meows. A meow that I try to convince myself doesn't sound like the word, "Princess." Then she turns and vanishes back out the window.
I pull the window closed behind her and turn back to my chair. Rolling away from the central table to the desk where I actually write out my Scripts, I take a closer look at what the cat delivered to me. Carefully, I uncrumple what appears to be a wadded up piece of toilet paper.
Written in what smells like blood on the paper are the words, Hide your aura.
...
Cait?
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Well people, there is at least one of your side-effects of the Fae queen of cats calling/conisdering Ericka her 'kitten'.
I suspect this part should have been cut. I haven't read it, but i know there is a QQ version of this story with sex scenes, so i wouldn't be surprised if it was a porn mcguffin. Crude i know, but i believe that in the original SB story this never went anywhere, which is what made me think that.
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
More that it is a mcguffin but nobody other than the adult Kitsune know anything about it and they aren't talking; it isn't necessarily a porn mcguffin. For all we know it could be a symbol of great and personal respect for a Kitsune etc and they're collectively trolling Ericka by not telling her what it means.