I appear in my workshop in Kuoh, the last notes of the Script that brought me here fading from my lips. I drop the bag containing my armor, promising myself that I'll put it on it's stand later. It's just so fiddly and I don't have the energy right now.

Pua may have started out teasing me about the threesome, but the conversation had turned into something very different. Pua had apparently taken my desire to become more self sufficient for when I didn't have her around to heart. My Kahuna had taken my reaction to the threesome offer, and used it as a springboard into talking about healthy sexual practices for a variety of different kinds of relationships she thought I might have in the future. Flings, relationships with a planned expiration date, long term relationships, distance, everything she could think of.

Apparently my lack of interest in pursuing that sort of thing now had her a bit concerned, the same way she had been concerned about my ability to socialize. Fortunately she didn't take the same route to fixing this perceived problem, I'm perfectly comfortable leaving DxD a virgin. Instead of setting me up on dates, she just talked about every kind of romantic, or at least sexual interaction she could think of. And she made sure I would have at least a basic idea of what interests me, what doesn't, and how to take care of myself when confronted with any of them.

It was the single most embarrassing conversation I've ever had in my life, even more so than when my father tried to give me The Talk, and I couldn't look at Pua in the face afterwards.

I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, left early, and now just want to take a bit to unwind and deal with less stressful things. Like devils, gap stuff, and the source code of the universe.

Which of course means that Mia tackles me the moment I step out of my workshop.

"Oh, thank all the Kami you're back!" She almost wailed clinging to my middle tightly, "I thought I was going to have to start foraging."

I winced slightly. Tengu had tastes that ran very similar to their animal cousins. Which means that if one goes looking for an easy meal you have to hope they find it in a restaurant, and not on the street outside of the restaurant.

Not something I want in my house.

That being said, "What happened to the food in the fridge?" I ask, my eyes narrowing at the top of her head in suspicion.

"Weeeell..." Mia hesitates.

"Mia..." I prompt, my voice ominous.

"I got bored of what you made so decided I'd make something myself." Oh god, no. Tengu tastes meant cooking the 'fermented' meat that they like, and that would ruin any kitchenware used in the process.

"Mia? What. Did. You. Do."

"Well, my first try didn't turn out so well, so I kept trying and pretty soon there was no food left!" She dissolves into slightly awkward laughter. I did my damnedest to set her on fire with my glare. She doesn't ignite, but the laughter quickly fades, "I'ma dead bird, aren't I?"

"No, but you're certainly a poorer one. You," I poke her in the chest, "are going to replace everything you ruined in my kitchen. While you're cleaning up, I will go and get new groceries." I glare at her harder, she still doesn't have a courtesy to spontaneously combust so I move on, "When I come back I want it to be at least spotless. I can wait to have all the cookware replaced, which you will do, and I don't want to see what you've done to my kitchen."

I adjust the strap of Sclamhaire's carrying case, and head towards the front door, "Right after I get home too, what the hell." I mutter. Quickly enough I'm out the door and off down the sidewalk, trying as hard as I can to not think about what state my kitchen might be in.

Depending on what state things are in when I get back, I may never leave Mia at home alone again.

###

Kuoh is a very strange city, and not just because of its inhabitants.

Well, I guess it probably is down to them, but it's not just their presence. The place is abnormally clean, everything is shiny and new, at least in the most frequented areas, and it clearly didn't grow organically.

Really, Kuoh is a bunch of small towns all pressed up against each other. In walking distance of just about anywhere you can find grocery stores, pharmacies, and anything else you might need. To me, it seems like these places aren't servicing a large enough area to stay in business, but it seems to work. Only a few things are less frequent, such as schools, hospitals, and the train station.

Which isn't to say that all these local services are created equal. The grocery store in my neighborhood is particularly pathetic. If I was a starving college student then it would work great. It has all sorts of easy prepackaged foods that all you need is a microwave to make at least basically edible.

I hate prepackaged food. I don't know what it is, but ever since I started dealing regularly with spirits, my tolerance for artificial anything entering my body has plummeted. It's not that I can't eat processed foods, it's just that, like brussel sprouts, that I can doesn't mean I want to. It was another reason for me learning how to cook for myself.

The result of my preferences in the immediate, is that even though there is a close available source of things technically food, I rarely go there. The better store is a longer walk, but I've always thought it a worthwhile trip. I have to be a little more picky about what I get this trip, just because I don't know how much damage Mia did to my cooking implements. So I get things that will be simple to put together, and hope for the best.

It's on my way home that I figure out that it's going to be one of 'those' days. The neighborhood I'm walking through is pretty upscale, and largely empty. The houses are all set a half floor above the ground, staircases jutting out on to the sidewalk providing access to the front doors. The houses themselves are town houses packed closely together, narrow buildings that get their floor space by being tall and deep. Really they're the sort of buildings that I've seen in San Francisco on one of my few visits there growing up.

What catches my attention though, is the young man across the street who looks slightly familiar. He's behaving in a fashion that sets off alarm bells in my head. It takes me a few additional steps to see that he's cornered two girls between a staircase and the front of the house it's attached to. They're wearing some sort of school uniform and can't be older than nine or ten. The boy has a grip on one of their shoulders, his other hand in the process of trying to get under her shirt.

"It's okay," I pause when he starts talking, "big brother just wants to play wit-hurk." Somehow without conscious input on my part, I find myself across the street with my hand wrapped around his neck. I have him dangling a good few feet off the ground, holding him easily at the end of my fully extended arm. I really don't want him getting any closer to me than necessary.

He has both of his hands wrapped around my wrist, and his feet are kicking frantically. All things that I very deliberately ignore to focus on the two girls. They're both wearing the same uniform, one a little shorter has her hair in loose pigtails tied towards the top of her head, the other a little taller has her hair in a princess cut.

"Are you two okay?" I examine them as well as I can from where I'm standing, not wanting to make them feel trapped, or bring the boy any closer to them.

The tall one with the princess cut, curls in on herself and starts crying softly. The one with the pigtails tries to comfort her, wrapping her arms around her friend's shoulders, while putting on a brave face, "Yeah big sis. We're fine, Mariko-chan was just a little scared."

I smile at her, "Not you though." It's a question, though I don't say it as one.

The girl shakes her head looking adorably proud of herself, "Nope! I was gonna kick him in the balls, but you got him first big sis."

That gets a chuckle out of me, "Good move, exactly what you want to do. Though next time, if there is one, kick them before they get you cornered so you can run while they're down. For now though, do either of you have a cellphone?"

The taller girl, Mariko I guess, nods still crying and largely hiding as best she can in her still nameless friend's shoulder. After a moment of sniffling she fishes a flip phone out of her school bag. For a moment I'm surprised that flip phones still exist, then I remember that this is a ten year old, and it's probably an excellent choice for a first phone. Smartphones are hardly standard yet, and still pretty expensive... I think?

When's the last time I actually thought about what the non-supernatural world is doing?

Something to think about later. "Good. Would one of you two call the cops? Just because I can hold him here all day doesn't mean I want to, and that would only solve the problem for today."

Pigtails nods, and take's her friend's phone since Mariko seems incapable of speech at the moment.

"Hey! I didn't do anything!" Oh god he's talking. I turn to acknowledge my captive and the camera hanging around his neck finally connects the dots of why he looks familiar. He's one of Issei's pals. The pedophile, unless I miss my guess, "What's wrong with appreciating the beauty of a young girl?" Yup. I'm gonna need to boil my hand when I get home, "The flat che-ack..." I squeeze hard enough to cut off his air, and his rant, before he can really get going.

"Shut up and be happy I'm not popping your head off." Oops, voice got away from me there.

At least it seems to have shut him up.

###

Conspiracy theorists everywhere are validated when the cops arrive, after a longer wait than I would have liked, with Sona Sitri and her Queen in tow.

The cops take the... boy, off my hands, and soon enough he's in handcuffs and stuffed into the back of a cop car. The Sitri Queen, Shinra I think, follows along behind them doing something with the kid that I find I don't really care about unless it ends with him out on the streets again. Another officer is getting a statement from the girls, and a third is doing the same with me.

My statement is short enough that I quickly find myself alone with Sona, "Is this going to be a regular thing Rhostana-san?"

"Depends." I answer honestly, though Sona doesn't seem to like that answer.

"On what?" She demands hands on hips.

"On how many pedophiles I catch in the act of trying to molest girls on the streets." That takes some of the wind out of her sails. I'm not done yet though, "Any idea why he thought that he could get away with that kind of behavior?" I ask pointedly.

She's at least got the decency to wince, "You recognized him?" I nod, "Either he or one of his two friends has a Sacred Gear, though we're not sure which yet. We've been..."

"Protecting them from the consequences of their actions?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. Sona nods and I sigh. For a moment I think about telling her that Issei's the one she's looking for. It wouldn't be hard to justify the knowledge, the sensory abilities that come with senjutsu are legendary. Pointing out that I practice a form of it is all I'd need to do, and nobody would think twice. Except maybe about how I learned senjutsu.

On the other hand, I don't really want to start messing with canon more than I already have. If Issei becomes a devil early, will the fallen angels still show up to watch him? The only way those four fallen could be more acceptable targets is if they wore swastikas. And since they ended up dead in canon anyway I wouldn't be risking anything by offing one of them myself. It's about the best bet I'm going to get for wings. I'm not really letting anything terrible happen by not messing with things…

In the end I just look back to where the Queen piece is finishing up with whatever she's been doing to the pedophile, "At least you've narrowed down your choices a little bit?"

Sona turns to look in the same direction that I am, and we watch her Queen finish up. After a few minutes of silence Shinra turns to her King, and shakes her head, "Not this one then?" I ask to make sure I follow the nonverbal communication.

"Apparently not." Sona looks mildly relieved. Which I can't blame her for. Whoever has the gear is going to end up in her friend's peerage. I wouldn't want somebody like that boy around my friends either. The remaining two of the perverted trio are at least marginally more tolerable, if only in the sense that they're not likely to try and molest young girls.

"Does this mean you're going to let the courts do their thing?"

Sona nods, "If he doesn't have a gear I have no reason to protect him. I have no desire to either."

"Good. I should be going then. I've left my roommate alone with my kitchen again. Given what she apparently did to it while I was away, that's not really something I'm comfortable with." I glance around, and find the groceries I purchased still in their bags on the sidewalk across the street.

At least it looks like I won't have to go back to the store. I nod to Sona and start on my way only to be brought up short by her hand on my elbow, "Before you go, Lucifer sent something for you." I raise an eyebrow in curiosity as Sona pulls an envelope from her uniform, holding it out to me.

I take it, and carefully open it to get a look at what's inside. I find a feather colored red and gold flickering with cool fire, and a note.

Fishing it out, I glance over the short note;

Not his, but it should be close enough.

-Lucifer

I grin pulling out the feather itself to get a closer look at it, now recognizing it for what it is.

A Phenex feather.

###

I frown as my pebble hits the ground again, I wouldn't have thought that this would be as difficult as it is. Especially given how smoothly everything else has gone since the jackass with the camera got arrested. Though I didn't manage to escape before promising to meet up with Sona for another chess game. I think these games are going to end up being a regular thing. I am happy that Sona seems to be taking the idea of being my liaison seriously.

My kitchen was fine when I got back home. So fine in fact I suspect that anything that had gone wrong with it had been cleaned up long before I left Roanoke. Meaning everything that had happened in the hall way when I had returned was just Mia being a drama bird purely for her own amusement.

I'd complain but... honestly she could be doing so many, much worse things to entertain herself, that I decided to just leave this alone.

Adding the Phenex to the Kuoh map was equally easy. Finding out that there was a Phenex in the city at the moment I started the map back up again nearly gave me a heart attack though. I nearly went out looking for him right then, but he wasn't anywhere near any other devil so I decided to call my client first.

Lucifer told me to leave it alone. Apparently, as Rias' betrothed, Riser has access rights to her territory. Meaning that until she gave him the boot he had every right to be there. Which, fair enough, was not my problem yet. I did give Sona a heads up that Rias' fiance is hanging around in her city though. She didn't seem happy but also seemed resigned to the idea that she can't do anything about it.

With those two things taken care of, my life turned back to routine rather quickly.

Part of that routine meant getting back to training Rias' peerage. Which is what I'm going to be doing today. In a little while. I arrived early to practice my TK as my trip to the killer island had brought to my attention some issues.

Using my TK as a method of rapid movement works rather well, except that yanking myself around like that causes all sorts of problems with acceleration and deceleration. I'm not sure how to counter my internals getting slammed around by the initial movement, but I'm sure I can make stopping easier if I can catch myself.

Thus me standing around trying to juggle pebbles at range. I glare at the dropped pebble again. It's a work in progress.

I start trying to bounce the pebble in the air again, determined to get it this time.

At first I'd thought that catching something larger would be easier. Easier to target, and easier to keep track of. As it turns out, thanks to my various enhancements, keeping track of a small rock at the range of a few yards is stupidly easy. Add to that the smaller object is actually easier to juggle because I don't have to pull my mental bowstring back nearly as far to catch it. So it's easier to generate the necessary force to bounce the pebble again quicker...

The foliage just past the tree line closest to where my pebble is rustles. I narrow my eyes focusing my senses to try and spot what might have moved.

Everything has stilled, I can't smell anything, and whatever it is isn't moving so I can't hear it... My mana senses though, show me something familiar. A slow smile grows across my face and I resume bouncing the pebble.

The brush shifts again.

The stone bounces up and down in the air.

Suddenly a white streak shoots out of the brush flailing wildly at my practice rock.

Shirone misses the stone, and hits the ground on all fours, spinning around to face her prey as quickly as she can. Her two tails thrash back and forth hard enough to drag her rear end slightly behind them. Her giant kitten ears are visible on her head, and perked forward focused on the stone, waiting for it to make its move.

After a moment's pause to build the tension, I send the rock skittering across the ground, and Shirone takes off after it. Just as she's about to catch it I snap my bowstring again, and her prey suddenly changes course forcing her to scramble after it.

A smile grows on my face as I continue to send the stone darting around for Shirone to hunt and chase. It's not the training I had been planning on, but it works just as well, and I already feel better about... everything.

Quickly enough, I fail to catch my pebble, leading to Shirone leaping through the air to pounce on it. She lands on it hands first, and manages to send herself tumbling ass over teakettle. Only to almost levitate, though as a devil for all I know she did, and spin back onto her feet to lunge at the stone again. Her hands stretched out and batting at the rock.

After a moments epic battle, Shirone secures her target, and comes trotting back to me. Her tails high and waving back and forth like flags. Upon reaching me Shirone head buts my hip hard enough to send me staggering backwards a step, and purring loud enough to be confused with a diesel engine.

I can't help but laugh and rub her head, which gets me another smile and even louder purrs.

"So what brings you here early?" I ask her after a moment as she continues to rub against me, and I continue to pat her head between her giant ears, "You're not due for training for another half an hour or so."

Shirone shrugs, and scuffs her feet slightly, now more girl than cat, "Wanted to see you." She mutters towards the ground.

I raise an eyebrow, "You'd see me at training." I point out, very careful to not give any hint that she should have waited. I'm just asking a question, no judgement involved.

She shuffles her feet again, "Wanted to play. Training isn't play time." Her soft voice would be a struggle to hear with the way she's looking at the ground, if it weren't for my enhancements, "None of the others will play with me. Kiba's too serious, Rias just wants to watch anime, and Akeno's idea of fun isn't anybody else's." She pauses for a moment then looks up at me with giant golden kitten eyes, "But you're a cat too. You know how important play is."

I blink, I'm a what now?

Cait, I have no idea what's going on, but it's all your fault.

Still, I don't mind playing with her, "Are you going to give me the stone back?" Shirone shakes her head, eyes bright. I narrow my eyes at her and dart forward, shooting a hand towards where she has the pebble clutched in her hand.

The nekoshu darts backwards, her ears perked and tails waving back and forth. Her body language and scent clearly screaming 'play'. I dart forward after her, and for a few minutes I chase the girl around the clearing.

She runs away from me laughing, until I decide that I need to get back to my own training. I snap my bow string, and Shirone's head snaps to the side where another stone just skittered away from her as though startled. She freezes, and stares eyes wide, and after a moment or two the stone skitters away from her again. As it moves so does she, darting closer to it, freezing again as soon as the rock stops moving.

Slowly, a little at a time, she closes on the rock as it moves. Finally she's close enough, and pounces at it. I snap my bowstring though, and her prey darts out from underneath her. She takes off after it, and we're off to the races again.

Me trying to keep a consistent acceleration and erratic course.

Her trying to catch the evading stone.

It's almost a shame that Kiba will show up soon and we'll have to do something more serious, but for now we can play.

Shirone is right after all, play is important.

Especially if it's training at the same time.

###

Kiba lunges for me, swinging hard. His attempt to step around my wooden practice sword without anything else to occupy it fails dismally. I shift slightly to track him, and step into his swing, thrusting forward. The blunted tip of my practice sword strikes him in the chest hard enough to knock him backwards, making his swing something I can watch go past in front of my face.

The Knight hits the ground hard, frustration in every line of his body and filling his scent. I let out a sigh and glance to where I have Shirone practicing footwork and precision drills. She's dancing around a post taller than she is, that's covered in twenty numbered circles, each the size of her fist. Her job is to maneuver around the post as quickly as she can, striking each circle in order. The trick being that she has to perform two evasion maneuvers in between each strike, and she can't use the same two evasions in a row.

The exercise should increase her hand precision, and get her used to moving around a target while dodging. So far it looks like it's working, she's darting in and out, slipping from side to side and even lifting her forward leg on occasion to evade what I assume is an imagined low kick. Through all of it, she moves continuously and smoothly exactly as she should. She's not moving quickly, but speed will come with time and practice.

I turn back to my other student who's only just now picking himself up. Kiba isn't doing as well. We've gotten rid of most of his flourishes, mostly via him going through his practices and me yelling 'no' at him every time he tries to do something unnecessary. After doing that for an hour, I make him spar with me, under the assumption the only way he's going to start closing up other openings is by me hitting him every time he leaves one.

After beating on him for another hour or so though, I'm beginning to think his problem might be his state of mind. Which isn't to say he doesn't still have copious technical flaws, but as Ku points out to me every time I go home to Hawaii, everybody has those. Kiba's thinking is what we need to correct now.

"All right, break time everybody. Shirone come over here and sit down, Kiba you don't have to stand up." Shirone stops her exercise and trots over to where I've sat down myself, and flings herself onto the ground next to me with a thud. Kiba simply drags himself to a sitting position obviously still frustrated at what he perceives as a lack of progress, "Kiba," I sigh as he looks at me resentfully. The Prince of Kuoh is gone, replaced by a sullen teenager. I am completely unsurprised. "in a fight, what's your number one priority. What's your goal?"

Kiba looks at me suspiciously. He's smart enough to know that when asked an obvious question, the obvious answer is probably not correct. After a moment he goes for the answer I'm kind of expecting anyway, "To defeat your opponent?" I shake my head. Kiba looks confused but not surprised, "Then what? Kill your enemy?"

"Which is basically another way of saying the same thing." I point out.

The boy flips onto his back with a frustrated hiss, "What should be my priority then?"

I look down at the little cat girl sprawled next to me, her eyes closed as she basks in the afternoon sunlight. If she was cat shaped at the moment, I don't think I'd be able to resist rubbing her tummy, "Shirone? You want to venture a guess?" Shirone shakes her head without opening her eyes. I roll my eyes at her, which is less than effective since she's not looking at me. And may not be conscious now that I think about it, "Any time you get into a fight, your number one priority, your overriding goal should always be to survive. First make sure you live, then worry about the state of the other guy."

Kiba picks his head up, looking at me with a frown down the length of his body, "But I'm a knight, I'm prepared to give my life in the defense of my King. If I must take a blow to land a blow isn't that what I should do?"

"Ever been on an airplane?" He blinks at the apparent non sequitur, but nods anyway, "You remember what they say about putting on air masks? Make sure your own is secure and working first, before attempting to help anybody else." He still looks confused, "Think of it this way. You're fighting somebody in Rias' defense. You see an opening that would let you kill them, but taking it would let them get a crippling strike on you. Do you take it?"

"Of course." He's frowning at me now, "I just said I'm prepared to give my life for Rias." God, hearing him say that makes me uncomfortable.

"Right, you take the shot, you kill your enemy, you're now down a leg." I raise an eyebrow at him, and he nods again seeming satisfied, "Now his six friends blow right past you and have a free shot at Rias."

"Hey!" Kiba sits up, "You didn't say that there were more of them!"

"I didn't say he was alone either. You assumed. Even if there weren't more enemies right there and then, the injury you were willing to accept would have kept you out of action for at least a few days, even as a devil. Most likely you would have been down a few weeks. What if Rias is attacked while you're convalescing?"

Kiba looks like he doesn't know how to respond for a moment, then he grows angry, "Then what the hell am I supposed to do? If I only defend and never attack how am I supposed to..." He cuts himself off then and looks away with gritted teeth. I'm still pretty sure I know what he was going to say though. Something about vengeance for all his companions who died in the holy sword project. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to have to warn Rias that Kiba's passively suicidal.

Instead I let out a long suffering sigh, "Kiba, have you ever landed a hit on me?" Kiba shakes his head angrily, "No. And yet I beat the crap out of you regularly. So it's obviously possible to preserve your own life while attacking somebody else. We just need you to learn how to do that. Which is what I'm trying to do. All right?" Kiba looks dubious but rises back to his feet. I ruffle Shirone's hair, "Break's over, time to get back to work." Shirone whines, but dutifully heads back to her post.

I pull myself to my feet, and face my second student again, "This time, before you rush me, get my sword out of the way. It's called beating, I know you know it. We'll deal with other options later." Kiba comes at me again after knocking my sword off line, and with less frustrated fury. Those are the only things that have changed though.

This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.

###

I get home later than I'd like from training. Kiba's stubbornness should be the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, the only way I can see to get him to fix his problems if he won't listen to me, is to beat them out of him. Even if he's not overly attached to his own skin, pain is still a great teacher.

Opening the door I'm met with chaos. Mia is running around, pulling weapons that I didn't know were in the house, out of hiding places that I wouldn't have thought could hold them. She's tossing the results of her lethal scavenger hunt into a bag with little care, aside from the fact that her finds are actually in the bag.

Her head jerks up as I come through the door, "Oh thank all the Kami you're here! I was afraid I'd have to leave a note!"

I stare dumbly for a long moment before I can find some words, "Um... Okay?" Not my best words, "What's going on?" Much better.

"I just got a call from Kyoto. We've got an all hands on deck situation. Kunou's gone missing." I blink several times as I let that sink in, "Was there an attack? Some part of the coup that got missed?"

Mia goes back to packing as she talks, "It doesn't look like it. Or at least there were no signs of a fight. Kunou's maid went to wake her up in the morning, and she wasn't there. Her bed was slept in, but no kit. The entire Yokai forest was searched before they determined that she wasn't anywhere inside the wards. We're all getting called in to search the city, if we don't find her in Kyoto we expand the search."

I groan. It's always something, "Should I get my armor on? Do you want my help?"

"You weren't mentioned. I'll bring up your offer when I get there, but for now stay put. Everybody is going to be really trigger happy right now, don't want you getting attacked by accident." Mia shoots me a strained grin.

"Right." I scrub my face, and run my hands through my hair, "For now I'll just..." The doorbell rings, "Go answer that."

I head to the door wondering, what fresh hell is waiting on the other side. I pull the door open and for a moment, I think I've been doorbell ditched.

Then I look down.

"Mia?" I call over my shoulder.

"Whatever it is Ericka, I don't have time. You know that." Mia calls back to me.

"I really think you have time for this." I tell her, bemused.

"What on earth," Mia stomps her way over to me, her voice clearly irritated, "could be so important..." Mia trails off as she looks around me. At my front door, in an oversized sweatshirt, and carrying a My Little Pony backpack, is Kunou. She looks more than a little sheepish, and worried upon seeing Mia, but otherwise looks exactly like she did the last time I saw her.

"So I think this makes me three for three at fox finding." I tell Mia, who just glares at me.