A/N: Next chapter will be a full one! Sorry for the short parts these past 3 weeks.
Level 17.C
"And lastly, and I shouldn't need to repeat myself, do check for large expenditures in accommodation, especially when there isn't a fixed tenancy agreement." I finished my long lecture *cough* overview on operational security to those that gathered around in our hotel's penthouse. "Some supernatural folk, you guys excluded-" I catch Sakura, Raiga, Atago and two of the chief security guardsmen of their clan nodding in understanding, "-will throw around money like no tomorrow, especially when you're a mad scientist."
I flipped a whiteboard up using my abilities to project an image of a manic, dangerously handsome with messy long black-haired Fallen Angel in human disguise.
The image turned into a video showing teenagers of varying ages following him along like he was their most trusted and beloved teacher in the world. It's a live stream from what's happening in the other resort right now.
How they do not notice that he's obviously evil is something I scarcely understand, yet I do, seeing that it's easy for children to be groomed for immense trust by a race known for their silver tongue and deception.
Or am I confusing them for devils? Well, they are distantly related, so no surprise there. Am I becoming racist?
The other part of my audience that made up the mature side of my family, my parents, Valerie and Sheev... who had just become more intelligent after the dhampir princess decided to make him her magical familiar.
If he starts proclaiming his love for democracy within the family or promotes fascism to my siblings then I'm going to make parrot stew.
My little brother and sister are playing some card games with Himuro and a clone of mine. Atago's little brother is good with kids, or maybe he's been taking some internet tips to heart in order to be the best "onii-chan" ever.
Through my other body, I recommended him to watch Oath Under Snow or read the manga arc it was adapted from. Both of us were fellow Fate series fans. In comparison to our deep love for the franchises (I love both while Himuro only likes Fate), Atago was quite casual in enjoying different franchises like Fate and Star Wars, so I mostly kept that kind of fandom discussion between us.
"And that concludes my long rant on how to spot suspicious activity."
Everyone clapped politely.
"Taki, make sure you have these minutes blasted out to everyone." Raiga got some affirmatives from his subordinates.
What?
"That's my son! Using his paranoia to improve security services!" Gotou looked so damn proud to the point where I decided to let the minor insult slide. I am paranoid, after all, but justifiably so.
"Dear, are you sure you don't want to be a security consultant?" Haru asked, looking noticeably concerned for my future career. I think my mother is too used to "Japan equals wage slave" idea. Damn it, dad! Stay at home more.
"I will not be bound for the fate of the Proletariat." I prefer entrepreneurship, or self-employment, whatever way you want to spin it.
Sakura and Atago were scheming, I mean discussing, on how to monetize some presidential security tier services for some reason. Really? If they already had a valid business plan then they really shouldn't amend it after hearing a paranoid man's ramblings.
I was just slightly irritated over the fact that their whole security team didn't discover the fact that the hotel management next door was paid in gold for a long stay, many rooms, with a requirement for no room service to be provided.
It was obviously a sign for nefarious intentions, I don't blame the humans there since they're obviously hypnotized, but I would think that anyone securing a location would be more throughout, hence the fact that the Kaiza clan was taking responsibility by listening to my many complaints on how they could have done better.
My throat was getting a bit dry, I turned around in order to get some water, only for Valerie to be right there holding up a cold glass of water with a couple of ice cubes in it.
I gratefully took the glass and drank its contents. "Haaa…" I love drinking cold water so much, screw warm drinks, this is where it's at! "Thank you. Really. I appreciate it."
"She's just a simple girl trying to get you to pay more-" Valerie flicked Sheev, who was perched on her shoulder, off with a finger.
"Be silent."
"Uh… I know he's gotten more annoying, but he's still my pet too."
"I'm too weak… don't kill me…"
"Sorry."
We tuned out the magical parrot's obviously fake mutterings.
"Did you become a psychic when I wasn't looking?"
"Possibly."
She looked to be seriously considering her answer for a moment, "It's faint, but I could sense that you wanted to stop talking, and it felt that you were a little thirsty around the middle…"
"We'll talk about it later." I didn't want Atago and her family to hear the rest. Well, I didn't want anyone else to hear about it. The knowledge of her Sacred Gear wasn't safe with my family, and it wasn't politically safe for it to be in the hands of a clan responsible for the security of their faction. Atago pretty much told me to not tell her when I first mentioned it all those months ago.
Even though I said we would talk about it later, I was really just mentally communicating with Valerie through my information flow technique, which was easier achieved due to our prior soul connection making it obvious it wasn't so much as a mental intrusion, so much as it was a mental connection.
Keeping that in mind, it's possible that the shared skills weren't just a one-time thing, and that my skills and knowledge might be bleeding into her in a similar, but slower fashion, to how EMIYA's experiences were transferred over to Shirou.
From what she described, she might have been mixing in her Sacred Gear's passive "Soul Sight" and my "Empathy Senses". I had to broach the topic of training sooner than I expected.
"Okay, so, I'm going to get myself involved and hope it isn't just a misunderstanding." I announced, shrugging, "Considering the Fallen are the Sacred Gear experts, I'd rather not lie my ass off if he takes an interest in me and approaches me like some pedo. Also-" Pointing my thumb at Valerie, "I don't want any news about Valerie leaking out to them."
Spies from all factions are literally everywhere. Kyoto's supernatural faction is largely secluded, and most don't involve themselves with other factions, but they still do get visitors and involved in inter-faction related politics.
The Biblical faction on the other hand? All of them, Heaven included, have so many leaks that you need Truck-sama to work overtime in order to plug them all. If they're not spies for each other's factions, then they're spies for private individuals, extremist factions or the treasonous Khaos Brigade.
Valerie cannot be known until we're all more prepared. Preferably, it would be better if she could live her life normally, but that would take everything short of outright death.
I was also being rather selfish of wanting her with me, if only because I had grown very fond of her as well. Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I do in fact have romantic love for more than one woman…
Most of the audience was displeased with my course of action, although for different reasons. I reassured my parents that we could still have our beach day as a family with a clone, that's basically me, in order to not disappoint the twins.
Atago's parents were much more accepting of it, part of the reason is likely due to their familiarity with my quirks, their desire to not get themselves involved in Fallen politics if they made a proactive move despite their concerns over the Sacred Gear wielders and lastly…
"Well, figures that you have to be heroic again. Personally, I don't see any death flags this round." Raiga grinned, remembering our old conversations.
"Even if I did, I'll likely find a way to resurrect myself after remaining "dead" for an entire light novel's worth of events." I joked. If Issei could pull if off without any planning whatsoever thanks to two cheating Dragon God's, then a bit of Palpatine and Voldemort-like preparations on my end could probably let me cheat death.
"Same rules as before?"
"...Yeah. Tell them about the Truck."
We did establish our "last wills" before fighting Heydrich after all, and we hadn't recanted it since then. While there were situational amendments, most of it still stayed the same in essence. We would take care of each other's family, and if I died, he would pass on the hint about me being a reincarnating in another world.
Although, without the mysterious death part now that my family knows of the supernatural, it would make it my circumstances so much more obvious in hindsight.
"I want in." Atago grabbed my arm before I left with Valerie, who had to stay close with me until the appointed time of my assault on a nearby facility that reeks "secret lab", "Someone has to sort out the logistics of twenty plus teenagers."
I could technically handle it with all my clones but… yeah, she would be better at that. I would either have to be on the honest spectrum or ham it up as whatever disguise I'm going as, somehow, I don't think that will end well.
This isn't clear cut like the vampire case. Some of these kids likely have legitimate loyalties to the Grigori other than their trusted "sensei" so I had to handle this more delicately.
Well, beyond the practical reasons for her participation, I could see that Atago was sticking to her commitment to being more involved in my life. Ever since our "holiday" to Europe, we've both been making an effort to improve each other's situations in the different lives we lived in.
If we were to be married, it is only natural for us to share each other's lives in a deeper manner.
And I was sure, that more than anything, it is for that reason she would be accompanying me for my stakeout and potential rescue mission.
I smile and joked around a bit, knowing that she wasn't going to change her mind, "It's going to be pretty boring. You sure you don't want to go to the beach with everyone else?"
"Fufu, I don't like the sand very much. But I wanna do all the fun beach things with you, like say… getting my body rubbed all over, with sunscreen." That sultry grin told me all about the things she wanted me to do during that "innocent" activity.
"Ah, the usual tropes, but make it R-18. Gotcha." We could always have fun tomorrow.
Right now, however, I had to follow my gut feeling with the hope that there was a slim chance of everything being an innocent misunderstanding.
Many hours later...
The really annoying security measures I had to navigate us through to get into the laboratory and the robots literally powered by a forsaken child, however, quickly proved my worst fears true.
Well then, thankfully, I already had a protocol for dealing with slavishly loyal children and obviously evil figures of authority that had gained their trust.
Now I just had to factor in how I was going to loot all of this… actually, I'm just going to do that later. Best not to get ahead of myself.
Step 1, get into the lab. Done.
Step 2, eliminate all threats. Quest accepted.
