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'?