The door of the ORC room opens several seconds after Rias finishes speaking. We all turn to see Kiba standing in the doorway, a demonic sword in each hand and a look on his face that's a mix of manic excitement and psychotic rage.
Well, fuck.
Before Kiba can get more than a step into the club room, I'm moving. I toss the Excalibur I'd stripped from the taller exorcist at her shorter, and more importantly calmer, colleague in the vague hope that she'd keep a lid on her partner.
I don't bother to check to see if she catches it, though, as I'm already moving towards the door just as fast as I can. Kiba doesn't bother to check or even register the rest of the room, he's just heading for the two holy sword wielders with a blind fury. Rias is shouting something, but neither one of us registers the words, I'm not sure that Kiba can actually hear his king at all.
Honestly, the whole thing is kind of sad. Kiba hadn't had the best situational awareness, but even what he did have is gone now. I catch him a few feet inside the door. I slip around the sword he's carrying in his left hand and plant my palm just below his sternum hard enough to lift him off the ground and fling him back out the door he'd just come in through. The sound of him retching and gasping tells me that I've bought a few seconds at least while he relearns how to breath.
I glance over my shoulder at the rest of the room, the majority of whom seem to only just now registering what's happening, "I'll calm Kiba down. Can the rest of you have a civil conversation while I'm not here?" The rest of the room nods, which earns a return nod from me before I head out the door after my berserking student.
Said student is pulling himself to his feet using his swords as crutches. He glares up at me, face twisted in anger, "Why did you stop me?"
"Because you're acting like an idiot." I tell him bluntly.
He doesn't seem to like that.
Kiba surges back to his feet swinging one of his swords at me. He's too angry to relax properly, and tense muscles move slower, so it isn't hard for me to step into the swing and catch his arm. Turning with the direction of his movement, I pivot and toss him through a window at the end of the hallway.
The sound of breaking glass makes me wince slightly, but honestly if that's the largest piece of damage the building takes from this little dust up I'll count that as a win. Never mind how much repair will probably be needed by the end of tomorrow.
I jump out the window after my student, I don't want to give him any time to start causing trouble without me there to keep him under control. My wings flare briefly to let me take the four story fall without trouble putting me between the knight and the door back inside. Kiba of course is no more than scuffed up, stupid devil resiliency, and already back on his feet.
Kiba seems ready to charge me again, but now that we're outside a narrow corridor that I nominally want to keep intact, I draw Sclamhaire. That actually gets him to pause. In the year I've been working with Kiba and Shirone, neither of them had faced me with Sclamhaire in hand. It would be overkill of the worst kind, and frankly neither of them are good enough to deal with her in a fight either.
So for the first time, Kiba is facing the prospect of The Devourer pointing at him. I figure that I must have been doing something right teaching him, when that gets him to hesitate.
Unfortunately it's only a hesitation, so clearly not enough right. Kiba lunges forward again swinging both swords down at me as hard as he can.
I sigh.
It's like everything I've taught him in the last year is gone. I swing Sclamhaire almost casually and shear through both demonic swords, side stepping around his charge. Kiba tosses the hilts of his swords away, and they dissolve back into the magic they'd been made from before they hit the ground. The devil knight spins to face me again, two more swords manifesting in his hands.
I'm... actually rather disappointed.
"Do you know what they've done?" He yells as he charges me again.
Any ability to think in battle that I've managed to instill in him has vanished. His goal is behind him, I'm not in the way anymore, but he's pursuing me instead of his goal. Which gets him nothing but a bruised stomach as I block one sword, catch his other wrist, and knee him hard enough to knock the wind out of him again.
"No. Tell me what have those two done?" I keep my tone of voice even, holding no emotion. The goal is to calm him down, not set him off again.
"They killed them!" Kiba howls, as he surges to his feet and swings a sloppy uppercut at me before he's regained his balance, never mind his feet. I evade it by leaning sideways, then cut through that sword as well.
It's not the same showboating that he used to engage in, but it gets him to the same place. Excess motion, poor footing, and a focus on something other than the fight he's in the middle of. Just now it's his irrational anger instead of trying to look good.
"Really? Those two up there killed... whoever they are?" I know, of course, that he's talking about his fellow victims of the 'Holy Sword Project', but I have no reason to know that. Fortunately, my knowing what he's talking about isn't actually necessary for this conversation.
"No. But the holy swords...!" Kiba doesn't bother forming a new sword and just lunges at me with the one he still has. A flick of my wrist knocks his blade off line, and he's forced to the ground again when my fist crashes into the side of his head.
"Ah. So we're blaming inanimate objects now. Tell me, is it your pencils fault when you get a bad grade on a test? Your sword's when you lose a fight? It must be by your logic." I look down at him and tilt my head curiously.
"...The holy sword wielders...!" The battered knight tries to surge to his feet again starting to manifest a new weapon and sounding almost desperate. I punch him in the face again before he can make his feet, sending him crashing back to the ground. The weapon he almost made dissolves before it manifests enough for me to figure out what it would have been.
"Ah!" I crouch down next to him, Sclamhaire resting on my shoulder and my elbows resting on my knees as I balance on the balls of my feet, "Now we're to the part where you blame a group born different from the majority for what a few of them did." I sigh and rest my chin in the palm of my left hand, "I have to say, that's never really worked out for anybody historically."
Kiba lays face down on the ground gasping for air. Not only is anger exhausting, but he's been extraordinarily tense through this whole scuffle, which burns through air like mad. He never really recovered his breath from when I kneed him either. I can see a black eye already developing from one of my punches, I have no doubt that he'll find a few more whenever he next takes a shower.
"So what?" Kiba finally speaks, his voice muffled by his refusal to look at me. So he ends up talking to the ground, "I should just let go of my vengeance? Forgive and forget?" Wow, Kiba, that's a lot of venom in just three words.
I snort, "Of course not. I'm a big fan of vengeance. And you're a devil, even if vengeance isn't the 'right' thing to do, I think that means you pretty much have to go for it." I tell him with a small smile, "What you should do is limit your vengeance to the people who actually deserve it." I tell him pointedly, "Those two up there are about your age. Maybe a little younger, but not older. When this 'Holy Sword' thing was going on, if I've got the timing right, they had maybe picked up a sword for the very first time that year. They haven't done anything, and if I've read them right they'd be pretty pissed if they heard about such a thing." I pause for a moment thinking about how much of a fanatic Xenovia is, "That or in denial." I shrug, "Hell, I'll help. If we manage to find the guy actually responsible before I have to move on, give him to me." That gets Kiba to roll his head enough to the side to look up at me. I assume that the expression is supposed to be curious, but between the black eye and how little of his face I can see I really can't read his expression. He smells confused and curious, though. Underneath the angry, anyway, "I happen to know the Lady of the Lake. Can you imagine what a faerie would do to somebody who used her life's work to torture children? Trust me, no matter what you can come up with that'll be worse." I probably gave away that I know more than I should with that, but Kiba's in no state of mind to notice. And I doubt he'll call me on it even if he does later.
He blinks, or tries to, "Really?" His voice has gone hoarse either from all the shouting he was just doing or with emotion.
"Yup. Think on it. But for now, up you get." I slide Sclamhaire back into her sheath and lever Kiba to his feet by his arm and help him back to the club room.
"We're done!" I call out as I kick the door open and drag Kiba inside.
"My apologies, Buchou." Kiba starts, "I..." Then he trails off as we take in the sight before us.
The room has changed since I left. Xenovia has her sword back and is standing, looking upset while trying to appear indifferent, her chair has somehow been reduced to kindling. Irina has gotten both herself and Issei into a corner where they seem to be having a very intense conversation. Or at least Irina is having an intense conversation, Issei just looks lost. Akeno is standing behind Rias glaring at Xenovia and licking her lips in a fashion that I find extremely disturbing. Rias herself has her face in her hands and looks like she's completely done with everything.
Shirone has gotten herself a candied apple from... somewhere.
"So," I say in the same cheerful voice that I use to annoy Sarah while she's hung over, "Did we miss anything?"
I'm sort of impressed that I manage to get the everybody in the room to glare at me with that one.
Except for Shirone.
She just shrugs and goes back to her apple.
###
Whatever had happened while I was beating sense into Kiba, which apparently involved the revelation that Irina was Issei's childhood friend, they did manage to come up with a plan. Or at least something that looks like a plan.
Rias' peerage will split up with the exorcists and search the city for the Excaliburs. There's more to it, but what will actually happen I'm unsure of. In canon they find Freed with a three part fused Excalibur, get their asses kicked, lose the two Excalibits that they have, then retreat to the school.
The problem is that I might have done Freed in when I sound nuked the church.
If he's gone I don't know what will occur.
Fortunately, I managed to keep things going in the right direction by getting them to agree that the school will be the planned fall back site if anything happens. I'm still confident that Kokabiel is behind this set up, and that his goal is Rias and Sona. So no matter the specifics we'll end up wherever they are. Which hopefully I've guaranteed will be the school.
I've been planning this fight with Kokabiel for a year.
Time to see if preparation really does beat power.
###
I leave the devils and the Exorcists to the finding of the Excalibits and head home.
Cait is passed out on the couch, somehow taking up the entire thing even though it's longer than she is tall. Mia is sitting in a chair watching TV, and occasionally glaring at Cait but otherwise ignoring her.
I pass through the living room without pausing or saying anything and head straight for my workshop. There I start packing. Research notes need to be either packed away or destroyed. The table creating my little bit of sample Gap needs to be shut down.
"Ericka?" Comes Mia's confused voice from the door. A quick glance at the door shows both Mia and Cait hovering in the doorway. I pause collecting the wooden dowels I'd been using to test my anti-Gap measures. Planting both my hands flat on the table I let my head hang down, I haven't been looking forward to this conversation, even if all the participants knew it's been coming, "What's going on?"
I sigh heavily, "A couple of church Exorcists popped up outside of the academy today." I tell them flatly. Both of them have heard the 'vision' I had, and though it takes a moment, both of them figure out what I'm saying pretty quickly.
"You're leaving." Cait says evenly.
I nod, "Yup. Unless I've changed things more than I think I have, it's all going down tomorrow. I might not have the chance to come back here long enough to pack, or at all. So..." I wave a hand where I've been collecting things to put away, "I figure I'll pack up today, take everything I'm not going to need for the fight to Hawaii and then spend tomorrow setting up." I move over to a drawer and pull a folder out of it that I hadn't looked at since I moved in and hand it to Cait, "This is the deed to the house. I figure given everything else you've got going on you could use a property in Japan. The wards will last... longer than you'll need them too honestly. Turn the place into an embassy or something."
Cait watches me for a moment, then takes the folder and sets it aside on one of the work tables. Then she takes a slow step forward and wraps her arms around my middle, "Sure thing, Princess."
What?
"I thought..."
"For now we'll help you pack, and then set up tomorrow." Cait cuts me off, turning to Mia, "Right?" Her tone says clearly that there's really only one right answer.
Mia glares at her, but softens when she turns back to me, "Partially anyway. I've got strict orders not to get involved in what's about to happen, just observe. I think that Yasaka-sama has a plan to rake the Biblical factions over the coals for almost restarting their war in our backyard and not saying anything to us. Probably get us a seat at the table of the peace conference that's coming." The tengu starts collecting organized bundles of paper and placing them in the box I'd gotten out to make traveling with them easier, "For now though I can help with this."
The rest of the night is... bittersweet is probably the best term. We pack slowly, laugh and tell stories. Mostly about me and the things we've done together. I move things to Hawaii as we finish packing them, Pua's nice enough to not say anything just yet. Though from the look on her face there's a conversation in our future. Everything else we destroy, by tossing it into my mini Gap. The globe of absence is then shut down, letting reality collapse back into the space I had banished it from with an anticlimactic soft pop.
Once the only things left in my workshop are my combat supplies we settle in for a quiet dinner. After dinner Mia leaves, though not before hugging me tightly. It could very well be the last time I see my feathered friend. If she's too busy tomorrow, or I have to run off too quickly...
Well...
Cait and I spend the rest of the night watching movies, her in cat form sprawled across my lap.
When I finally go to bed Cait insists on tucking me in.
It's...
I don't say anything.
But I doubt she misses my smile.
###
In the morning Cait helps me put my armor on swearing all the while about how difficult it is. I just silently nod having long since resigned myself to how stupid taking off and putting on armor that was never supposed to do that after the first time is.
I really need to figure out how this soul storage thing is supposed to work.
After that's done though, the two of us collect my implements of destruction and head for the school. Fifty, six foot long stainless steel rods covered from top to bottom in the smallest Script I could make work. A box of Script enhanced teargas, courtesy of my gremlin contacts. And ten small gourds covered in Script and packed full of Power of Destruction.
School is still canceled for the day, so the two of us get started without an audience or having to explain anything. Step one is setting up the rods equidistantly around the school. Some quick math gave us a close enough measurement of how far away they need to be from each other. With that each of us take half and head in opposite directions. With my armor on it's pretty easy to use my fist as a hammer, and it only takes two or three strikes to sink a rod completely into the ground.
I'm at it for an hour or so when Sona shows up looking tired and irritated. Though less so when she sees me.
She pauses a moment at a distance then approaches, "The armor is still very impressive. It looks good on you." I turn to look at her when she speaks, just in time to catch the faint blush on her cheeks.
I smile at her which brings it back full force, "It should, Vivain made it for me custom."
Sona frowns for a moment, then her eyes go wide, "The Lady of the Lake?"
"Yeah, did I never mention that? She made me the armor and my sword." I tell her and start heading for the next spot I need to put a rod.
Sona stares at me for a moment then shakes her head with a sigh, "What are you doing Ericka?"
I stop walking and turn to face her, "Have you talked to Rias at all about what was up with the Exorcists yesterday?" Sona nods. "Well I thought about it for a moment, and what I heard was that a bunch of fallen angels stole three Excaliburs, and were traced here to devil territory. More than that, the territory of the little sisters of the two most notoriously, overprotective Satans. So of course the church comes after their missing weapons. Now we've got all three factions here, and all it would take would be either you or Rias dying to set off the war again. If that's not suspicious I don't know what is. So I'm preparing the most likely battlefield for the worst case scenario." Sona gets progressively more pale as I talk, looking more than a little faint when I finish, "You might want to call your peerage back from whatever you have them doing and get ready to put a barrier around the school. Just in case."
Sona nods and turns away without a word. She's more than smart enough to put together what I know from meta knowledge. If the plan is actually to restart the war by killing her, Rias, or both that means they've sent somebody they're sure can do the job.
###
It takes us nearly four hours to get everything in place and ready to go. Four hours of hammering, singing, and bleeding. The bleeding has actually gotten harder since I killed Riser. Now every time anything breaks my skin, little tongues of blue white pressurized flame erupt from the injury, it's like I've become a blowtorch. The effect is kind of interesting to watch though. My wounds seem to burn away, like they're little pieces of paper that have been stuck to my skin. Then the fire burns them away leaving perfectly untouched skin underneath. I don't think I'm ever going to scar again.
Does make it hard to get blood to start up my Scripts though.
Fortunately I've got enough control of my internal mana that I can sort of... pull it away from my healing. For a little while at least. Okay for a few seconds, but that's all I really need. So four hours of work and my preparations are ready.
Then we wait.
And continue to wait.
And wait some more.
And wait.
Noon comes, and Cait and I have lunch with Sona and her peerage.
Sona and I play a game of chess, which Sona wins by the space of a single move. Seriously she got checkmate only just before I did. By far the closest game we've ever had. Apparently the most exciting one too as Sona's entire peerage watched on the edge of their seats.
Cait looks amused and smells... sympathetic. Though when I raise an eyebrow at her in question she just shakes her head.
Sona seems almost determinedly stoic and thanks me for the game. Before challenging me to another one.
The sun is just beginning to set when something finally happens, and when it does it's just as much of a disaster as I expected it to be.
The teleportation circle in the ORC room flares to life, and Rias' peerage and the Exorcists come staggering out. First comes the Exorcists, Xenovia seems to be down an eye. A bloody gash running from her hairline almost straight down her face, through her right eye, and ending at her jaw. She's supporting Irina, who's gotten it much worse and is missing a leg.
I rush forward and help Xenovia get her to a couch and lay her down. Somebody had the good idea to use the string tie that's a part of the Kuoh Academy school uniform as a tourniquet. So the bleeding is sluggish... at least I hope that's why the bleeding is sluggish.
Next through the circle is Rias and Akeno, both of them look tired but otherwise fine. As ranged attackers they were probably in the least danger out of anybody there. They obviously did their part though from how worn down they look.
Last comes Kiba, and Shirone, with Issei supported between them. My students look scuffed up, they've clearly been in a fight, but aside from scrapes and bruises they're fine. Issei has that red gauntlet on his arm and looks like he's been put through a wringer. Say what you want about Issei, and I will, but he's clearly been knocked down a lot very recently. And so just as clearly kept getting back up. I can respect that determination if nothing else about him.
Seriously, the kid is beat to hell. If he's got no broken bones I'll be amazed.
Once everybody is through, the circle fades away. I want to demand information about what happened, but given the level of beat to shit a lot of them seem to be there are other priorities.
I turn to Cait, "How fast can you get to Hawaii?" Rias doesn't have Asia in her peerage this time, so if I want the injured to be combat capable when Kokabiel gets here I'll need to import.
And make sure that Rias has no opportunity to get Asia alone to recruit her.
Cait looks at me for a moment, "Probably not as quickly as we'd like, but faster than any other option that will make it back." She glances at the others, "And faster than you." I just nod at her and she turns into a cat and vanishes... somehow.
Shirone is staring at where she had just been, but wisely doesn't say anything. She'll have questions later though. Hope I get the chance to answer them.
"Now," I turn back to the more intact members of the group, "what the hell happened?"
Kiba's the one that actually answers me, "Well we found the Excaliburs." He says hesitantly, which prompts a snort from Xenovia where she's doing her best to tend to her partner, "The problem is that they've been... fused together somehow and are in the hands of some rogue exorcist."
"Freed." Xenovia interrupts. We all turn to her and she sighs, "His name is Freed Sellzen. He got excommunicated for being completely psychotic. And way too enthusiastic about 'purging sinners'. Which in his mind is anybody in the vicinity of anything supernatural. Or anybody who annoys him. Which is everybody."
Kiba shrugs, "Him. He ambushed us. He nearly took Irina's arm off but I managed to get her out of the way in time. The fight was... well it was going well for us, not quickly but well, until we figured out that the only reason we found him is because he was after the other two Excaliburs. Shirone and I were handling him well enough with Buchou and Akeno as ranged support, so Rias suggested we get the Excaliburs away from him with Issei as escort."
I turned to look at the redhead and she shrugged, "Why take chances?"
"We wouldn't have left." Xenovia bites out, "Leave sacred relics, our mission from Michael in the hands of devils?" The exorcist doesn't spit but looks like she wants to.
"It didn't matter either way." Kiba cuts in again, "At the mention that the Excaliburs might be leaving Freed suddenly got... much faster."
"Excalibur Rapidly." Xenovia says through gritted teeth, "It was one of the ones stolen. One moment we had him surrounded, then next Irina was across the street, missing a leg, and Freed had her sword. I jumped after him but he..." She paused and raised a hand halfway to her maimed face before aborting the movement, "That... He took my sword too."
"He was about to kill her, both of them, when Issei jumped him." Kiba says glancing at the newest devil who had sprawled out on the couch that Irina wasn't bleeding on. Both Rias and Akeno are fussing over him, "Issei..."
"Pervert got his ass kicked." Shirone says flatly, "Hard. Several times."
Kiba shrugs, "That. He managed to hold on long enough for Freed to be called back though."
"Called back?" I ask.
"Yeah." Kiba frowns, "I couldn't hear what was said to him, but he had an ear bud in or something. Touched his ear while arguing about whether or not he was allowed to kill all of us, or if he should head back now that he had his mission objective." Xenovia clenches her fists at even the indirect mention of her missing sword, "He was wrecking us, so Rias called for the retreat while he was distracted and we could collect our wounded with a smaller chance of interference."
"Probably a good plan." I comment, and manage to suppress a smile at the slightly surprised look I get from Rias, "Well I think the best we can do at the moment is hole up here until Cait gets back. Not much use in making plans until we know who's going to be able to fight."
Xenovia growls, clearly not liking the idea of just waiting for something to happen, but not really having any better ideas. At least she's gone the route of just sitting quietly instead of being loud about the lack of good options.
We don't have to wait much longer, as about five minutes after we settle in, the air in one corner of the ORC room distorts. Space seems to crumple in on itself and fracture. It looks like a bunch of shattered glass melded together. Everybody tenses at the strange phenomenon. There's barely any magic detectable from whatever it is. Which honestly makes all of our nerves worse. The amount of control needed to distort space like that without any detectable magic is immense. Screw power, that kind of precision scares me.
It all makes sense a moment later as Pua steps out of the spatial distortion with a rather large bag over one shoulder and a number of gourds hanging off of her. Not the big one that she had on her back with the dragon though, which honestly makes me a little relieved. I don't really want to see what the power of a hurricane focused through a two or three inch aperture at close range will do. I breathe a sigh of relief as she looks around. There's a moment of silence and then her gaze lands on me, "What happened here?"
"Some asshole stray exorcist somehow fused three shards of Excalibur together and kicked all their asses." I explain shortly.
Pua's gaze grows intense for a moment. She relaxes when I give her a minute nod, "I take it you called for medical support?" I don't think anybody caught the brief silent interaction, but it's hard to tell as they're all distracted at that moment by Cait's cat shape coming through the distortion behind Pua.
"I'm sure we're glad for the help," Rias stands up doing her best to seem authoritative and like she's in control of the situation, "but Ericka, who are these people?"
...I've never introduced Cait have I? No wonder Shirone was staring at her.
Oops.
"Ah. This is Pua Ke'Kua'Okolani." All the devils, except Issei who I'm not sure is conscious, and the conscious exorcist stiffen, "And that," I indicate the over large cat who's making her way back over to me at the sort of unconcerned languid pace that only cats have, "is Caitriona, the Queen of Cats." Shirone's eyes go wide enough that for a moment I'm afraid that they're going to fall out of her head.
Everybody seems to be in shock and so doesn't move even an inch as Pua moves around the room to take a look at the three most injured. After a few minutes spent on each, finishing with Issei, "Well I can help. Not as much as I might be able to with more to work with, but I'm not letting any of them on the Islands. That said I can get those two," She indicates Issei and Xenovia, "mostly combat ready pretty quickly. The boy will be no problem, I can't replace an eye that quickly though. The third..." She looks at Irina with a frown, "Where's her leg?"
"Excellent question." Xenovia grits out.
Pua just shrugs, "I can keep her alive and infection free, but anything more than that is a long term project. And you don't really have that kind of time."
"What do you mean..." Xenovia stands up with the beginning of what sounds like an angry rant when she's interrupted.
"Where are ya, ya filthy devils?" An unfamiliar voice calls from somewhere on the grounds not far from the building we're in. The voice... well given how it sort of sounds like what I'd expect the Joker to sound like in person, I'm assuming it's Freed, "I didn't get to bleed any of ya last time, and now my sword's even better! I can't wait to try it out on ya bitches! Now come on out before I start," There's the sound of an explosion and Xenovia twitches going pale, "breaking some shit."
"Freed?" I ask, already knowing the answer, and get a round of nods. How long does it take to fuse two new Excaliburs anyway? Apparently not nearly as long as I would have thought, "Right, Pua?"
Pua moves to Issei first, pulling something from a gourd and without warning stuffs it down Issei's throat. The little grub chokes and coughs for a moment, but I can see his injuries fading while I watch, "That'll get him up and moving for the duration of the battle, the moment he stops though he's going to crash and crash hard. Don't expect much from him for a week afterwards." While people are reeling from that little bit of healing magic, Pua turns to Xenovia, and grabs the back of her head with one hand and slaps the other against the open wound over her eye. Xenovia looks like she's about to start shouting, but there's a sizzling sound and whatever the exorcist was going to say is lost in a shriek of pain. When Pua pulls her hand away the open wound on Xenovia's face has become a fresh and ugly scar, the knotted flesh new skin pink. Pua's mentioned before that a lot of traditional Kahuna healing is all about getting warriors back into the fight as quickly as possible, but seeing it is something else.
Xenovia staggers back against the couch her friend is on, almost falling on her. She manages to recover though surging back to her feet angrily, "What the hell..."
"No time." I cut her off, "You lot need to get out there, don't start without me I'll be right behind you."
"I'll keep your friend safe and alive while you deal with... that." Pua waves in the general direction of the still ranting voice which is accompanied by the occasional explosion.
Xenovia looks like she wants to object but the devils are already moving towards the door and Shirone drags her along with them. Rias pauses at the door and looks back at me, "What are you going to be doing?"
I grin at her, "I'm going to make a phone call."