Chapter Seven

The sun had already set by the time Souji left his family's shrine. There was a time when he wouldn't have dared stay so late, but much had changed over the last three months. Still, it was a bit odd for him to be so alone. Kuroka had been a constant in his life since Winter Break. Hopefully, her errand wouldn't take much longer.

For now, he put those thoughts to the side. He could always give Kuroka's absence more attention once his uninvited guests were dealt with.

The moment his foot touched earth, he knew exactly where they were. Zenith Tempest had some interesting applications, as he had found out in the months since he first began training under Kuroka.

"Can I help you?" he asked politely, turning to look at each of the four figures in such an obvious way that they couldn't have possibly missed it.

The four individuals were all men of some European descent, but none of them were human. He wasn't sure what they were, but of that he was certain.

One of the men stepped closer to him before speaking. "You will come with us." The raspy voice that filled the air sounded as though it hadn't been used in many years, despite the relatively youthful look of the man who it belonged to.

"No, I will not."

The man actually seemed baffled by the refusal, though it didn't last long. He exchanged a look with his comrades and moved forward. To the untrained eye, his moments would have appeared as little more than a blur, but Souji's eyes were not what anyone would call untrained. In comparison to Kuroka, his moments were positively sluggish.

The man's fist came to a stop less than a centimeter away from Souji, and he let out a hiss of pain. The man didn't pull his punch. Instead, he had struck a condensed wall of air. Not even Kuroka could have broken through that particular defense. Not with a punch, at least.

"That sounded like it hurt."

The scowl brought a smile to his face, but Souji did not linger on such thoughts. Instead, he extended a single arm and gestured towards one of the other figures. The air crackled and a bolt of lightning leapt from his hand and struck without hesitation. He felt more than saw the figure hit the ground with a dull thud. It probably wouldn't be a lethal attack, especially if his suspicions were proven correct, but he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon either.

He didn't have time to launch another attack. The other two figures rushed him with what could only have been described as inhuman speed. Still, he felt their every footstep, so it took relatively little effort to sweep their legs out from under them with a little wind manipulation. That wouldn't have been enough to stop them, but the instant they hit the ground, the earth itself rose up and drew them into it.

Not once did he take his eyes off of the first figure. His every instinct was telling him that he was the most dangerous of the four, and he wasn't about to ignore his instincts.

It was because of his focus on the man that he reacted to the attack on time. The man swiped a hand through the air and three spears of darkness formed. They moved nearly as fast as Kuroka did in their sparring sessions, and they tore through the barrier of condensed air with little effort.

The moment the spears met his barrier, he dropped to the ground and drew further on his power. Earth rose behind him in a thick wall as quickly as he could manage it. Judging by the lack of divine retribution against his opponent, Souji could only assume that he was fast enough to block the spears before they reached the shrine.

It would have been faster to let the attack hit, but the shrine was his responsibility. If he could protect it, he had to, especially when it cost him so little.

Dark eyes narrowed and the man's lips twisted with a frown. He did not immediately act, and that was his greatest mistake.

Thunder boomed and heavy droplets began to fall from dark clouds. The trees around them moved with turbulent wind. The man appeared to realize his mistake, but it was far too late as he was thrown into the air by unseen wind. Several times, he launched more spears of dark energy at Souji, but it was pointless. Successfully hitting him would have been a feat comparable to shooting the wings off a housefly while riding a horse blindfolded. After all, in the wild and ever-changing storm, Souji alone stood untouched. That was what it meant to be the Stormborn, the wielder of Zenith Tempest.

With a thought, Souji drove the man into the ground with the force of a freight train.

"What are you?" he wondered, staring at the man as he rose to his feet in the small crater. The question bothered him more than he would have liked to admit, but he wasn't going to wait around for an answer. Instead, he called upon the power of the storm and slammed it down on the man.

Thunder boomed as a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky and struck the man. He remained standing, even if only barely.

Thunder boomed a second time, and again, a bolt of lightning struck the man. This time, he collapsed to his knees.

Thunder boomed a third time. Then a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. And finally, a seventh time. The man no longer even twitched in the crater.

Souji frowned. The man had been more dangerous than the others for sure. Breaking through his defenses was proof of that. Even so, something about the fight seemed too easy.

That was when he felt it. There were only two prisoners trapped in earth. One was missing.

On closer inspection, he understood. The figure in the crater was not the same one that he had been fighting. If he had come to that realization a mere moment later, he would have lost his life. Instead, he dove forward and rolled when he hit the ground, just barely avoiding the man from before. He had lashed out with a kick aimed at the back of his head, and he seemed to be floating in the air.

Before he had even finished his kick, the man was struck with seven simultaneous lightning bolts. The thunderous boom made even Souji flinch, but he did his best to keep his eyes trained on the man. Whatever trick he had used the first time, he failed to replicate. When he collapsed to the ground, Souji sensed no heartbeat or any other signs of life.

Exhaling slowly, Souji brought the rain to a halt and allowed the wind to return back to normal. Even as he did, he never took his eyes off the nearby corpse. A sense of emptiness filled him, but he ignored that to the best of his ability.

"You probably shouldn't whip up storms without a barrier up. The weather is going to be affected for at least a week or two, even after you calmed everything."

He spun and found Kuroka sitting atop the earthen wall with an amused expression, though there was a hardness in her eyes that was unusual. Unlike when they usually trained, she wasn't wearing her athletic tracksuit. Instead, she wore a loose-fitting black kimono with a red inner layer and a golden obi closing it around her stomach. The way it hung off her shoulders and exposed both her ample cleavage and legs was tantalizing. And from where he stood, he quickly became aware of the lack of clothing beneath her kimono and averted his eyes. That only earned a short but soft laugh.

It took some effort, but he bit back a grimace at the realization of her words. During their training sessions, Kuroka had always put up a barrier to contain the damage that he could do and keep anyone outside from sensing anything. This time, there had been no barrier.

Suddenly something hit his shoulder and Souji stepped back, but he needn't have bothered. Kuroka was no longer atop the wall. She now sat on his shoulder in her cat form. Before he could ask why, he felt a new presence and turned.

Sona Sitri stood upon a magic circle bearing the symbol of her family. Though she glanced at the surroundings curiously, her attention was primarily upon Souji. What surprised him the most wasn't her presence. Rather, it was the fact that she hadn't brought Rias or a single member of her peerage with her.

She came to a stop a few meters away from him and looked at his feline companion for a long moment before speaking. "Souji, I believe we're overdue for a conversation."

He met those violet eyes and could only nod in agreement.

Souji placed a cup of tea before Sona before taking the seat across from her. It had been about an hour since the fight with the four men. It had taken a little time for Sona to arrange a place to keep the two survivors and dispose of the corpses. If not for his mother's family, the very idea of having problems involving corpse disposal would have horrified him.

"Shouldn't you get a cup for your friend?" Sona asked, staring at the cat on the counter.

He froze, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kuroka in her cat form stiffen.

"These glasses are something of a failure," Sona remarked idly. "My sister had a magician craft them with the intention of being able to see all things. It's only natural that they wouldn't succeed. Still, they aren't useless. I wouldn't wear them if they didn't serve a purpose."

"And here I thought your vision was flawed," he said, only to earn a genuine smile from the devil.

"No, my vision is perfect. These glasses merely allow me to see through certain deceptions. I can't exactly see through your cat's Transformation spell, but I can certainly see that she's using one. I can also see that she is using a mixture of senjutsu and youjutsu to conceal her presence. If I hadn't accidentally looked at her, even these glasses wouldn't have helped."

"And what do you know about her?"

"I am ninety-three percent sure that your friend is the SS-class stray devil known as Kuroka," Sona answered before taking a sip of tea.

Souji turned to look at Kuroka sharply just as she transformed back into her normal state. The fact that Sona knew exactly who Kuroka was didn't concern him. How she described Kuroka did.

"Stray devil?" he asked quietly.

Kuroka did not meet his gaze, but she nodded. "I was meaning to tell you, but it was hard to find a good way to say it."

In a way, it did make sense. Her sister was a devil, and she refused to let Shirone know that she was in town. Besides, what she had done in their sparring was beyond the realm of senjutsu or youjutsu, and she didn't appear to employ either Eastern or Western magic. It only made sense that she used the magic of devils.

"Just to be clear, I am not here regarding Kuroka," Sona interrupted. "I do apologize for revealing information that wasn't known. Interfering in your relationship was not my intention."

"Relationship?" Souji asked, glancing between the two girls and shifting in his seat.

Sona tilted her head. "You two are lovers, are you not? Considering how often you are together and the fact that you share an apartment, it seemed obvious."

"He's just a little shy," Kuroka said before he could open his mouth. "We'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone. Souji likes his privacy."

She only smiled as he shot a quick glare at her, though internally, he had to admit that it wasn't such a surprising conclusion for Sona to reach.

"It would be rather difficult to tell anyone," Sona assured them. "Admitting that I spoke with a SS-class stray devil would be problematic enough. No one would expect me to face Kuroka in a fight. I'm only a high-class devil, after all. Not reporting her presence in my territory to the Devil Kings would get me in some trouble though. With that in mind, I am officially asking. Are you Kuroka, the SS-class stray devil?"

Kuroka smiled at the question and said, "I'm just a simple nekomata that shares the name, sorry."

Sona visibly relaxed with a smile of her own. "Excellent. I'm glad we cleared that up. There's no reason to mention you to my superiors in that case." Her posture grew more severe as she met Souji's eyes. "That aside, the reason I sought you out is directly connected to the events earlier. In short, your existence is now an open secret in the supernatural world."

Souji grimaced, though it didn't last long. Kuroka ruined his grimace by casually sitting in his lap and leaning back against him.

"You're not wrong," Kuroka said once she was comfortable. It was difficult to pay too much attention to her words when he was trying to suppress a physical reaction. "The whole reason I left a few days ago was because a friend of mine sent word about a rumor. Word has spread to both the Eastern and Western Youkai Factions about you, and obviously the fallen angels already knew. Things spiraled even more out of control than I expected though. That was the Tepes Faction that came for you."

Sona nodded grimly. Unlike Kuroka, she could no doubt see the confusion on his face, so she explained. "The Tepes are one of the two major factions of vampires. Factions based in Asia learning of you wouldn't be surprising at this point, but for your name and location to have spread all the way to Romania is concerning."

"How exactly did word about me spread?" Souji asked.

Kuroka stiffened against him at the question and even Sona grew tense. Absently, he placed a hand on Kuroka's leg and she relaxed a little.

"It wasn't me," Sona said at once. Something that he had never seen darkened her expression. Sona Sitri was angry. "Rias broke her word. She allowed your presence within Kuoh to be shared with the higher-ups of the Devil King Faction."

Kuroka hissed at the words, and Souji grimaced. There was no real anger in him though. He had never trusted Rias Gremory, so her betraying her word didn't exactly come as a surprise to him.

"Unfortunately, the information didn't stop there. Ideally, only the four Devil Kings would have been told, but somehow the Great King Faction also learned of it. I only learned about it recently and planned on telling you tomorrow, but then this happened."

"The information was somehow leaked by one of those factions and spread to the youkai and vampires?" Souji guessed, earning a nod from Sona.

"That is my belief. Technically, the fallen angels could be responsible, but I doubt they would have waited so long to release that information if they were going to expose you."

"It wasn't them according to Vali," Kuroka agreed. Souji still didn't know who Vali was, though Kuroka had mentioned him a few times, but from the flicker of unease in Sona's eyes, she knew something. Still, it didn't seem important at the moment.

Souji wasn't stupid. He knew the kind of danger that he was put in by having his identity revealed to the other factions. As a former member of the Doumon family, he knew just how dangerous the supernatural factions could be. Yet, there was no fear in him at the thought. Instead, he looked at the situation as a problem that could be solved.

"How sure are you that it was the Tepes Faction that came after me?"

The question seemed to surprise both Sona and Kuroka.

"They sent four men after you," Sona said, recovering a little faster than Kuroka. While the Carmilla Faction does have male agents, they are matriarchal in nature. They wouldn't trust a man to lead a team to capture a Longinus wielder."

"Sitri is right," Kuroka conceded begrudgingly. "Besides, Marius Tepes is known to have been doing research on Sacred Gears. Someone could have set it up to make you think the Tepes Faction was responsible, but I don't think it's likely."

Souji nodded slowly. Kuroka's instincts were sharper than anyone's he knew. If she didn't think it was a ploy, then he had to agree. "How do they get along with the Carmilla Faction?"

"Like fire and napalm on a windy day."

He nodded again. "How strong would you say the Tepes Faction is in comparison to the Carmilla Faction?"

"About equal." This time, the answer came from Kuroka.

"What about in comparison to the Five Principal Families or the devils?" The question seemed to mystify Sona, but Kuroka didn't seem to think too much on the why of his questions.

"The vampire factions have sheer numbers on their side, but in terms of raw power, they don't have anyone comparable to an ultimate-class devil or one of the Sacred Beast holders."

A horrible plan had begun to form in his mind, and all the information lined up with his idea. Even so, he had to stop and ask himself one simple question. Should he do it? In all honesty, he didn't want to get involved with the factions. It was one reason he had tried to keep to himself ever since breaking the seal of Zenith Tempest. The very idea was ludicrous now. Keeping quiet and pretending he didn't exist had failed. If factions from as far away as Romania were sending agents after him, it was only a matter of time before others made their moves. There was only one way to handle things now.

Still, he looked to Sona and asked the last question that needed to be asked. "Is there a reason you haven't tried to offer me the protection of the Sitri household?" He didn't need to add, "Aren't you going to ask me to join your peerage?"

"Lord Sirzechs Lucifer, head of the Devil King Faction, has forbidden it," Sona admitted. "Only Rias and I have been given the order since they're trying to contain the information, but no one is allowed to reincarnate you into their peerages. The second strongest Longinus is something that would upset the balance in the Underworld."

Kuroka muttered something that he couldn't hear, though she calmed somewhat when he stroked her leg some more.

With every question asked, Souji met Sona's gaze and said, "I'd like to meet with the Carmilla Faction as soon as possible."

Sona froze and stared at him in horror. Kuroka, on the other hand, pulled away and turned to face him without getting out of his lap. Her eyes were alight with excitement.

"What are you planning?" Sona asked quietly.

Souji told her, and with every word, she grew paler.