Day 26: Getting married.

Saidan considered himself a smart man. A scholar. In fact, he was one of the smartest demons in hell, ranked barely below the Brain Eater.

But he lacked brawls. In power he was ranked pretty low on the list and if he wasn't on the Court he was positive that no one would ever know his name. But he was needed here, next to the Emperor, and he was positive it was because the Brain Eater didn't do his job. Saidan was the back up plan.

Everyone knew it. And it was humiliating .

So when Neuro scaped to the World Above he saw his opportunity. Finally! A moment to teach him a lesson! He spent every single second lobbying for the immediate arrest and execution of the rogue demon as soon as he left through his forced portal, and when it was heard about his sudden return he was gleaming with joy.

But, the prick had found a worthy partner. That changed everything. That threw everything he had worked on for what seemed like an eternity to the deepest pitch of Hell. You see, if a powerful demon finds a worthy partner it is a big deal, because it means a change in the status quo, a messenger send by Fate to change the scales of power.

The last time a top five demon found a worthy partner, he became the Emperor.

Saidan clearly remembers the day that Gabrielle came to Hell, a flimsy human afraid of her own shadow. No one considered her worthy at all, but as she was brought there by the son of the current Emperor no one challenged or said anything about it. The mating was such an event, the human doing a hundred-eighty degrees change, becoming the powerful being she was now. It became legend.

And this… stupid woman in the center of the room was threatening the way of things, probably without knowing what she was doing. She was not worthy of mating the Brain Eater! Everyone knew so. He was sure of it.

A look around the room confirmed him that everyone of the Court agreed about the girl. Maybe except Mamoru, but that boy was always so closed up about his thoughts and emotions, so Saidan simply ignored him. But the general consensus was that today would be proven that humans were not made to mate powerful demons, so no more pesky weaklings would enter the demon ways of things anymore.

And that would wipe out the Brain Eater out of his way. He smiled.

"Don't be so cocky," he heard a voice behind him. Saidan turned and found that Raven had chosen to sit beside him instead of nearer to her parents. It wasn't surprising giving the fact that not long ago the woman arrived at the Palace, heavily wounded and weakened, noticeably angry but somewhat tamed.

Everyone knew that she had just challenged the human for the right to mate Neuro, and she had lost. To a human girl.

"And why is that?" he asked without tearing his eyes from the couple getting ready to perform the weaving. Neuro had gracefully kneeled in front of the Emperor and took a wet rag to clean his hands. It was tradition to clean oneself from any dirt before joining their mates.

"That human is not normal, Saidan," there was real fear in her voice and for a fraction of a second the demon felt doubt.

"How so?" Now it was the woman's turn to kneel and clean herself, doing so with no grace and painfully slow.

" She can summon the Tools ," Raven lowered her voice, trying to keep their conversation between themselves.

Saidan felt his heart skip a beat. Raven must be mistaken. She must have seen wrong. Because it had to be impossible that the human was able to access the Tools, something that only the top ten ranked demons could do. The last human that did it…

He looked nervously at the Empress, carefully seating in her throne in her pure white kimono, making her literally gleam in the dark room. Her kind smile wouldn't tell anything about the things she was capable of doing, but demons old enough could remember. He could.

It was not something that a human without any demonic power should be able to summon. The amount of power, focus and ability to do that was gained after years of training, even for someone already powerful enough to spend energy in the summoning. And the girl was alive ?

Maybe…

"No," he said, refusing to believe it.

"You may begin," bounced the deep voice of the Emperor, now in his human form. He appeared as a tall man dressed in a pitch black kimono. Yako could see a third eye on his forehead, very similar to the one on Raven's bird form, and then the detective saw the obvious resemblance between the daughter and the father. The dark hair and even darker aura, the pale skin and the eyes full of evil intent.

It was so sad that Raven had very little of her mother. Gabrielle was the total opposite of her husband, and now side by side the differences were painfully obvious. How the hell, no pun intended, did someone so pure end up being the Empress of Hell? With what dark scheme did the Emperor get this human woman to agree to this madness?

Yako couldn't imagine what would it be like to be the Emperor's bride. If it was already pretty rough with Neuro, how many painful experiences did the human suffer before getting here?

A movement on her side woke her from her thoughts. It was Neuro initiating the weaving, she was sure, and she looked in his direction not before taking a quick glance at Gabrielle in her giant throne.

"My strength will be your strength," he said, taking her left hand between his, the difference in their abilities very much obvious. If he wanted to crush her hand he could do it, and the reality on the fact made her heart skip a beat. "My blood will be your blood," the demon continued, picking up the dagger on the floor before making a swift clean cut on her palm. She flinched, but the pain was less than she expected. "My power will be yours," he then let out his aura, a colorless shine that lighted the dark room they were in, dancing on the pale faces of the demons of the Court, who were clearly afraid of what he could do. Yako thought that it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "And from now to eternity, I will be yours and you will be mine."

Their eyes fixed on each other, a determined shine on his emerald ones, an amused tone in hers. They both knew what the other was thinking, that the people on the Court expected her to fail, that they expected her to be afraid, to back out from this. He smiled in equal amusement. The Court had always been stupid and this was a perfect opportunity to shut their mouths for good.

Yako took a deep breath and started her own vows.

"My strength will be your strength," the only human in the place took the dagger with her uninjured hand from where he had let it down, and softly placed his left hand on her left one, careful of the oozing blood. "My blood will be your blood," she made a cut deep enough to draw blood, but the demon didn't even flinch, he just smiled, his eyes on her face the whole time. "My power will be yours," her eyes lighted with a new force, one Neuro knew very well, the one that almost no human could see, too blinded by their unevolved minds. The Demon Court gasped, watching the new aura coming from the unsuspecting human on the center of the room, shocked by her strength and willpower. "And from now to eternity I will be yours and you will be mine."

And as they let their mirrored wounds touch, the light in the room exploded in a myriad of colors, engulfing the demons in the Court in raw power, choking them, making them suffocate under the pressure of one of the most powerful demons in Hell. Some even watched in amusement, still not believing that a mere human could dream of mating the Brain Eater, expecting her to be consumed by the enormous energy swirling around.

But, to the utmost shock of the unbelievers, she was laughing in delight. The lowly human was enjoying the crippling pressure coming from the power of the demon, answering with a power of her own that, while many times smaller than his, was playing and swirling in harmony with the other like they were meant to be together.

With a final giggle from the woman, the light condensed back to the central point of the court room. A few seconds passed in complete silence, no one daring to break the intense moment they had experienced, watching the newly joined couple in front of them. He had reverted back to his original form, a giant bird with great horns adorning his head and dangerous talons scratching the stone floor; and smiling by his side, the tiny human some had come to respect this very moment, full of demonic power and literally glowing with the excess of energy absorbed in her body. She was happily snuggling the side of her mate, letting the soft feathers caress her face.

The Emperor looked at them and slightly bowed, acknowledging the joined couple, and got up from his seat signaling the end of the gathering. Some demons let out a breath they didn't know they were holding, exhausted.

The giant bird's head turned towards his mate and gently poked her side with its beak, breaking her from her heaven of soft warmth feathers. Yako grumbled, not liking being pulled down from her power high, and stood straighter with a tiny smile on her lips.

She was alive. They were mated. It was done.

"Congratulations," said Lakhmet when everyone got out of the Court room. A clearly fake smile on her dangerous lips, and Yako wondered if her face was frozen in that expression 24/7. She was not liked here, not that she didn't expect it, but the thought was still painful enough to damper her happy mood a little bit.

"Thanks," she answered before her mate could, with an equally fake smile. Her mind was more focused now and her body was oozing with demonic power. It was like she was on some kind of drug that accelerated her cognitive functions, making her feel more awake and, well, smart.

Lakhmet's eye twitched, the smile not leaving her lips as she turned and left the hallway. Yako's smile grew.

The next one was Mamoru, who just nodded and bowed slightly before walking to the corridor on their left. As usual, he was expressionless, but surprisingly enough, that didn't even affect her. It was just one person that wasn't looking her down.

From the corner of her eye she could see Tantalus murmuring something to her mate, quick hissing words and a worried expression, but before she could approach them she was intercepted by the one demon she didn't want to face, who was next to the demon she didn't want to meet.

"Congrats," Saidan bowed slightly with his trademark fake kind smile on place. His striking blue eyes were even more impressive at close distance, but fortunately her overworking mind could focus on the conversation more than she would be able to mere hours ago.

"Thank you," she answered with a little bow of her own, purposely not looking at Raven. A quick glance at her confirmed that the bird demon was very unhappy and glaring openly at her.

"Naturally, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Court, Katsuragi Yako," the cat demon continued in a gleeful voice, totally fake. "It is not every day that a human manages such a position among our kind."

"Thanks, I guess," Yako didn't know where he was going with this. "But I really don't care about the position. I just wanted to mate my husband."

Saidan's smile faltered for a bit.

"So honorable of you, my dear! Tell me, why the rush? Expecting children soon?"

"Excuse me?" she couldn't believe it. But as the cat demon opened his mouth to give what Yako supposed was the final strike, Raven, who had been surprisingly silent all this time, interrupted him:

"You really don't know what you got yourself into!?" the woman pushed aside her comrade and place the full glare of her crimson eyes on the human. "Did you really mate the Brain Eater out of love ?" she spat the word like it was some kind of insult. "How stupid can you be?"

The detective didn't expect this to happen, at least not so soon, so she didn't have any response to that. She just blinked a few times, trying to know what this was all about. Neuro said that Raven had been trying to mate him for a while, but here was the woman looking down on love and calling her stupid. What was her motive?

"I can't believe this!" Raven continued, "Of all the things he could mate with he choses a human! Tell me, insect, what did you do to get his attention? It can't be your looks," Yako's eye twitched at the comment, "or your intelligence," another twitch, "so, how? Did you spend your time whoring-"

"Enough."

"How do you dare-!"

"I said enough!"

There was a bright light and then Raven was pushed to the other side of the hallway, her body breaking through the wood and crashing into the next wall with a loud thud before falling to the ground. Her face couldn't be seen under her thick black hair, but as she didn't get up she must have been knocked out.

"Oh my," a gentle voice giggled behind Yako. Gabrielle was there in all her white glory, one hand on her mouth trying to hide a smile behind her kimono sleeve.

"I'm sorry!" the detective said bowing very low, ashamed. This was the Empress and Raven's mother, not matter how much she disliked the princess.

"She had it coming, so don't worry dear. Do you mind having a walk with me?"

Yako looked back to her mate, worried of having embarrassed him or breaking some kind of rule that would get them in trouble. But as what she found was an amused expression and a look in his eyes that usually told her when he was up for some funny times , she breathed deeply.

"Yeah, let's go."