Ch. 31 The Beastly Knight
Some Time Ago In America
Giras, a bit younger, is standing before a woman who is only two years older than her. The woman has maroon colored hair and is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with handcuffs on. She asks the young girl with a disinterested look.
"Who let you into my cell?"
Giras saw the woman on news as her arrest was a worldwide relief. She approaches the woman and responds.
"I let myself in; I hope that I'm not imposing on you."
The woman is named Katherine Bathory, the infamous Bathory the Beast. Katherine is laying on her bed as she turns and tells the devil.
"Get lost; I got no interest in talking to anyone anymore. I've done everything I've wanted to do, so no, get lost."
Giras smiles and explains.
"I understand, you don't want to explore the further regions of death. I understand."
Katherine turns around with an irritated look and asks with a slightly angry tone.
"The fuck did you just say to me?"
Giras shrugs and answers.
"Well, I just thought that someone who understands death such as yourself would want to be brought to a world of creatures and beings most humans would never know about."
Katherine gets out of her bed and gets in Giras's face and tells her.
"Listen you little shit, I know more about death than anyone on the planet. I don't give a shit on what any religion or doctor says, they don't know the shit I do."
Giras smiles as she reveals her devils wings to the serial killer which catches her attention. Rather than become shocked or scared, she simply says.
"Now I'm listening."
Katherine smiles and Giras pulls out a chess piece, a knight.
Present- Pleiades Palace
Pleiades has just received word that Almus was defeated, something she is already aware of. She simply sits and drinks a can of soda. One of her subordinates finds this odd as he points out.
"Master Pleiades, surely a sugary carbonated beverage is beneath you. Wouldn't you prefer wine or something more regal?"
Pleiades continues to sip her drink and reply.
"No, I happen to like root beer and cola. I have similar likes to devils and humans you know. Anyway, I need to find a new bodyguard for Raynare in his stead."
Saya approaches Pleiades upon hearing the news and asks.
"Master Pleiades, I am going to become that witch's full time guard?"
Pleiades shakes her head and answers.
"No, I'll simply have to find someone else. We aren't in critical need at the moment anyway. I have different plans in mind. Diodora is currently on the move. After all, I have a deal to complete. But please see to it that Freed is recovered, I don't want to lose him just yet."
Saya nods and also adds.
"What about Almus?"
Pleiades thinks for a moment and just replies.
"I'll let him decide. Almus isn't a slave; he just needs time to find his own answer."
Hyoudou Residence
Gerhilde is in her room at her laptop drinking a can of soda and eating a cup ramen while talking with someone over the screen while looking over something else on the same screen. She is currently solving a murder case with her partner in the police. She is currently inspecting the statements made by the witnesses and comments.
"Isn't it strange that somehow the co-worker seemed to already knew where the victim was?"
Her partner, a woman named Houzuki, is looking through the case file as she physically has it and reads the notes.
"Well, it says that the body was discovered on the third floor bathroom, and people have to use the bathroom, so what? If I went to the bathroom and a dead body was around, anyone should notice it."
Gerhilde is looking at the building notes and explains.
"But the worker is stationed on the fifth floor and there's a bathroom near his station. I don't see any reason why he had to go to the bathroom on the third floor."
Houzuki is looking at the notes and agrees.
"Yeah, that is weird. I'll go check with our witness."
Gerhilde agrees and adds.
"I'll look at the autopsy report some more and make some notes if I find anything suspicious."
The two decide to end their conversation as they go their ways to solve the case. She reaches under her counter for a pen, but can't find one and realizes that she used the last of her ink the other day and has been too busy to notice. She then gets an idea as she becomes a little entranced with it.
"I'm certain that elder sister Giras must have a spare pen, she's always prepared for anything."
Gehilde happily stands up and walks out of her room and head towards Giras's room. Giras has told her siblings in the past that she doesn't mind others going into her room as long as they stay out of her locked box and don't touch the door with knight symbol on it. On her way, two people appear in the lobby, Issei and Kai. They are holding ice cream cones as Giras had to leave to a movie shoot. Issei taps his head again and thinks for a moment then says.
"G…Gerhilde…I think. Right! Rossweisse's daughter, yeah I'm learning it."
Kai looks at his father and sarcastically asks.
"Are you?"
Issei then gets defensive and replies.
"Well when you got like thirty kids, it's hard to keep track of them all."
Gerhilde giggles a little and simply tells Issei.
"How about you just call me Hilda. That's what my mother calls me."
Issei lowers his head and says to himself.
"At least it's not a major name to remember"
Issei and Kai split up but only inside the residence as Issei follows Gerhilde to Giras's room as he wishes to learn a bit more about her. Upon entering her room, it is rather nice with a nice big and clean bed, a bookshelf, TV, and mini fridge; there is one thing that makes it unique, all the awards that decorate the room from Ratings game trophies to movie awards. There are also pictures of Giras with some others and Issei recognizes one of them as Roxy, who he met yesterday. The picture read: Giras champion of the High School Rating Campaign. Gerhilde explains.
"Giras has won just about every Ratings Game she's ever been in. She won the first ever Junior League at fifteen and currently going for the Ultimate League."
Issei is a little shocked about this and asks.
"Is Giras really that strong? Holy Crap!"
Gerhilde gets a sparkle in her eyes as she praises her sister.
"Giras is simply too amazing to be beaten. She's so great that she's already an ultimate class devil, the same rank as Sirzechs and Millicas."
Issei looks at the photos and can't help but be awestruck by his daughter's abilities from word alone. He also sees the movie awards, grabs one, and gets that Giras is an actress as well, and a popular one from the trophies. Gerhilde looks at the award and tells him.
"That was her first award that she won when she was twelve and her first movie was a huge success."
Issei is then told of Giras's acting career and her successes in that as well. The Gerilde mentions.
"I have all of her movies, and gotten her to autograph all of them."
Issei is now a little weird out from this and asks.
"Why do you worship her so much?"
Gerhilde turns around and says.
"Well, when I was younger we…..Oh boy."
Gerhilde stops once she sees something that scares her a little. She approaches a door that has been opened and a knight symbol is etched into the door. Issei wonders what she's scared about as she looks in the room and asks.
"What?"
Gerhilde explains.
"That's the symbol of her knight."
He understands that Gerhilde is talking about Giras's knight and further asks.
"What's so scary about that?"
Gerhilde starts looking around the bedroom and explains.
"Giras keeps her second knight, Katherine locked for a reason, and she's out, screw everything else. We got to get everyone out of this house."
Issei wonders about this further as this seems odd even for his taste.
"Giras's knight is that bad? What's the worst that can happen?"
Gerhilde grabs Issei's arm and runs with him with a panicked look on her face as she begins searching the other rooms for anyone. Luckily, the kids are clothes shopping with their grandparents and their mother's are out doing their own things.
Kai, on the other hand, is still in the lobby finishing his cone as he hears something moving around. He looks around and shrugs a little. Gerhilde and Issei come back into the lobby and tells him to stay while she searches the other rooms.
Issei still can't really understand the issue as one knight can't be all that bad. Kai simply stands with him as he asks.
"So what's Gerhilde freaking out about?"
Issei just vaguely says.
"Something about this Katherine chick getting out of her room or something."
Kai suddenly freezes in place as he utters.
"Katherine is out?"
Kai equips his battle attire and summons his sword as he begins looking around more intensely and now Issei is just fed up with being confused.
"Okay, so what is the big deal with Katherine? I don't completely get it. How can one single person be so feared? I get people like Loki and Ophis, but this girl can't be that bad."
Kai is prepared to Issei everything when they hear footsteps approaching as woman with medium maroon hair with white hair band, green eyes, a black frilled shirt with a white shirt underneath, a pair of tan pants, red slippers, a knight necklace, and a pair of black handcuffs. She is equipped with a pair of clawed gloves despite her handcuffs and she has a deranged smile. Issei, upon looking at her, instantly gets as he says.
"Okay, I get, she freaks me out."
Issei then notices that she has a sizeable bust and starts getting his usual thoughts as he thinks about using his Dress Break on her, but Kai immediately tells him.
"Don't even try the Dress Break on her, Issei."
Issei, annoyed, goes.
"Come on! I want to have some fun, and she's got a nice pair of big ones."
Kai smacks him and tells him.
"You can run the risk of breaking her handcuffs and we can't beat her if that happens."
Issei groans as he equips his Boosted Gear and stands next to Kai as he (Kai) assumes his over the shoulder stance. The two boys begin to attack Katherine as she has killing intent and assumes a restrained stance due to her handcuffs. Issei attempts a punch, but she counters with her foot as she blocks using her feet and Kai attacks from above with his sword but is blocked by her claws. She grabs Kai's sword using said claws and throws him across the room as he barely avoids the statue of Kuroka as he hits the wall. She then spin kicks and knocks Issei away and he lands next to Kai. Katherine then notes.
"From the trajectory and the impact, I'd say that I chipped the brown-haired one's spine by at least one millimeter fragment, and the other, being a Gremory probably only suffered minimal bruising. Not fun at all."
Kai stands up then he jumps and dives into the ground creating a small vortex of dark energy as it moves towards Katherine, but she jumps and kicks it with a powerful stomp, lifts Kai by the chin with her foot, and then kicks him in the stomach with another spin kick.
Issei tries to think of something as he and Kai are clearly outclassed at the moment and he doesn't have much of a charge. Kai then has an idea, but he isn't next to Issei and cannot tell it to him. The two boys then simply nod to each other as Issei seems to know what his son wants.
They buy time by avoiding Katherine as she starts her own assault, but her attacks are fast with her knight abilities and appears to be just as fast as Seiken. Then, Kai points his sword at Katherine as she smiles knowing what's coming as she simply stands with her smile. Issei then holds up his arm and as her prepares for their unspoken plan as a voice calls out.
"Trasnfer!"
Kai's sword then gets a rather large orb of energy at the tip of the blade as it launches a big red orb. Katherine jumps out of the way, but the orb then shatters into smaller orbs as they follow Katherine in the air, but even these have trouble hitting her, and one does the worst thing possible, one hits her cuffs and breaks the chain releasing her hands. Kai sees this and is truly afraid and Issei can feel the danger as Katherine stretches her arms and gets ready to fight for real a she smiles again and prepares for an all out assault as she kneels on the ground. Before Katherine can jump into action, a barrier of light appears before her as she is shackled to the ground by chains formed from the barrier as she shouts.
"Jophiel, you fucker! You always ruin my goddamn fun!"
Issei and Kai look around and see someone floating from above as black feathers fall to ground and another devil floats to the ground. He is wearing a white robe-like shirt that is torn and worn underneath a short-sleeved leather jacket, black leather-gloves with white cloth forearm accessories, black pants with a torn white cloth around the waist, and leather boots with white buckles. His hair is black with blonde lines, and he wears a white mask with a single black eye. Kai instantly recognizes him and says.
"Sensei Jophiel…"
Issei sighs with relief and says.
"Good thing he showed up right now."
Jophiel looks at Issei and says.
"Ah, you must be who Lady Giras spoke of."
Issei doesn't know who this guy really is, but he must be acquainted with Giras. Kai approaches Issei and whispers.
"This is Giras's first knight. He's Jophiel, they guy Giras mentioned a little bit ago."
Jophiel picks Katherine up and takes her back to her room. Issei then asks again.
"Okay, but seriously, why did Giras want that girl as a knight, she's freaking dangerous as hell."
Kai simply says.
"She wants to win at times. Katherine gets results. When Giras faced her final challenge in the High School League, Katherine tore apart the peerage of her final opponent without too much trouble."
Issei argues.
"But keeping someone that dangerous where kids are living is crazy. If she gets out, she could seriously hurt our family."
Kai shrugs and says.
"I don't get it either, but this is the first time this has ever happened. Someone let her out, and I don't know who."
In another room, Gerhilde smiles as her eyes glow red and a bruise is on the back of her neck with a small hole in the middle.
The girls are back with their new clothes, which are just copies of their casual clothes but more comfy due to the spider silk. They even bring Issei a new pair of clothes as well. Raezal is still with Chromia as they plan on going on a date this coming Sunday.
Outside in the town, Seiken and Yasuko are going to the movies to see a new Samurai movie. As they walk, they spot a clown handing out something. They walk up to see what he's handing out and its tickets to a grand opening of a new amusement park on the outskirts of town. This day is this Sunday. Seiken and Yasuko look at each other and smile and decide to go. They even decide to tell Raezal about it.
Some time later, a girl wearing a white doctor's jacket with a red dragon on the left sleeve, red skirt and has dirty blonde hair with green eyes. She looks at these tickets and thinks to herself.
"I think this would be fun."
This girl is the eldest of Asia's daughter's Aina