Chapter-3

Kuoh Cemetery

10:30 P.M

The cemetery in Kuoh was situated at the foothills of the Hilly areas in Kuoh, it was a beautiful place which attracted the people of that area to use it for Strolls which kept it bustling with people all day.

At that moment, it was deserted mostly because the handler of cemetery tends to close the gate after 7:30 PM. Thought at the moment the Handlers can be seen lying headfirst on the ground knocked out near the gates of the cemetery.

Inside the cemetery, the lone figure of Akane can be seen standing before two graves, where on each one she had placed two beautifully made bouquets she had bought earlier in the evening.

Her family had been serving the Kuoh's shrine form the day this town was founded and thus ,they had a special area in the cemetery where the members of her family's remains where put to rest .It was where her Father's and then her Grandmother's remains were put to rest after their deaths.

Akane was not sure how she should feel or what she should do in front of her Father and Grandmother's graves. She had seen people interact in front of their family members or loved one's graves, some tended to cry, some tended to smile sadly and reminisce about their time spent together with the deceased individual, some would either try to talk with them. She once even encountered a guy having a barbeque with even a small portable TV in front of his father's grave ,when she asked him what he was doing he simply answered, "Just watching the Superbowl with my Pops like always." Before offering her, a hotdog and having her join them for the game.

She envied them, as to her standing before the grave of her father and grandmother did not bring sorrow, she couldn't reminisce about her time spend with them, heck she couldn't even remember what activities or traditions she and her father used to do for fun before his death.

No, to her standing before their graves only brought out the anger. While she couldn't have done anything to save her father as it was a miracle that she survived that fire. No, it was her grandmother's murder that could have been avoided if she bothered to train her in fighting rather than in healing and how to be a shrine maiden. This was the fact that made her angry towards her Grandmother, she knew that her father's death in that house fire was no mere accident and the culprit may come after her next. But ,no! She was convinced that she would live a peaceful life of a shrine maiden something even convinced Akane to pursue something she, in childish naivety, followed through and look where her Grandmother peaceful ways resulted in, her murder, where Akane could not do anything but cry tears of blood and despair.

A beeping noise coming from Azazel's glasses drew her attention, she takes the glasses out of her pocket, and puts them on to see why it is making those noises. The beeping noise stops ,as she puts them on she finds out that the glasses had an inbuilt transparent screen of sorts that registered her ocular movements to operate the system which was showing her some feeds, one feed that drew her attention was a possible disturbance in Purgatorio near her location.

"My ,my Azazel you really are a genius to minimize the function that requires Exorcists to use a whole bevy of equipment's that can fill a room into a single pair of glasses." Akane muttered to herself as a former exorcist herself she knew how useful and revolutionary this technology was, as while Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils could sense the disturbance in Purgatorio near them. Exorcists themselves could not sense these disturbances, thats why for every hunt or investigation every Team of Exorcists had a lesser Angel with them who worked as their sensor and guide.

Akane wasn't sure whether she wanted to go and check out what was causing the disturbance. As there were three possible causes for the disturbance. One could be a fight taking place inside the Purgatorio, or it could be a Stray devil, or it can be a mixture of both.

In the end, she decided to check it out anyway, not wanting whoever causing that disturbance to interfere tomorrow while she was spying on the fallen angels.

She glanced one last time at the grave of her father and grandmother before leaving the cemetery and moving towards the location where the disturbance was taking place, which was a few blocks away from the Cemetery.

Line break

Akane arrived at a construction site where the signal was coming from and decided to get a high vantage point to scan out the location, which looked seemingly empty, there was a guard booth but she couldn't see anybody in there. The neighboring four-story building looked like a great vantage point and from there she could enter the upper areas of the construction building quite easily if she needed a quick sneaky entry.

By focusing some chakra into her legs, she was able to enhance her muscles and made the jump to the roof of the four-story building quite easily.

"Let's see what's causing the disturbance in the Purgatorio." Akane said to herself as she kneels at the edge of the roof as her glasses scan the entire area.

"No signs of life aside from the one who has been causing this ruckus..." Akane mutters as she read through the results of the scan, "A Stray devil, though its quite humongous in size with another heat source beside him, which is clearly not humanoid. Hmmm, maybe it's a Qliphoth it would explain the stray devil's abnormal size as well as seemingly abandoned construction site." Akane theorized further.

She looked at her watch to check what the time was ,"Hmm... 10:52 PM, if I remember correctly, it takes approximately an hour or so for the Blood Fruit to be harvested from the Qliphoth and it hasn't been that long since the stray has moved here." Akane thought to herself.

"Still, where are the Gremory's or the Sitri's, this is supposed to be their territory; they should have been here by now taking care of the stray. "She questioned herself ,"Maybe it's an S-Class Stray Devil as I have rumors that devils of that power level can remove the Evil Piece from their bodies making it harder for Other Devils to track them down. Though if that's the case ,why is the stray using a Qliphoth?" She thought as she tries to make sense of what the situation was.

"If the Gremory and Sitri don't arrive by 11:12 PM then I will have to take care of the Stray myself before he eats another Blood Fruit." Akane decided as she takes a seat and waits for the Devils to Arrive.

Construction Site

11:15 PM

An Unnatural tree can be seen glowing as it emanates some sort of power. This tree had no leaves and the bark of the tree and its branches gave it the appearance of a dead tree even though one of those branches boasted a blood-red flower growing from it. The tree had been planted upon a heap of dead bodies, a few of its roots had gone completely through the dead bodies and made a hole in the concrete, which had caused cracks to appears in the entire floor of the construction site.

Near the tree, a huge creature with hideous horns can be seen standing beside the tree shrieking, as if he was in agony, although at first glance ,the creature appeared to be malnourished and almost had a skeletal body, there is long fur covering mostly his back and his right hand which looked slightly longer than his left, he was standing in a crouched fashion as his knees were bent. The closest thing that beast's appearance can be compared to is of a Demonic Goat with a humanoid body. An ironic appearance for a Stray Devil.

"Soon." A disturbing mix of shrieking and giggling came from the Stray Devil, "Soon I will get my…." But he was interrupted when a small Spear of light passed by him and it hit the blood-red flower burning it instantly. It happened so quickly that the stray couldn't even react.

"WHOO DIDD THISSS?!" The Stray shouted with a deafening roar which was interrupted when, again, a spear of light passes through his snout and jaw forcing his mouth shut.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but I cannot, in good conscience, let you eat another Blood fruit, I mean, look at yourself, hasn't eating one done nearly enough damage?" Akane said to the stray as she comes out of the shadows holding a Glowing Light purple Bow in the shape of a fancy Celtic cross.

She drew her bow to launch another light spear, launching it towards the Qliphoth. Destroying the entire tree this time in the process, as the Stray Devil was busy trying to remove that spear from his mouth, while making agonizing sounds in the process.

"AKANE ORIMURA," The Stray says after removing the light spear from his mouth, a bit of smoke was still coming out of his wounds as well as his hands which had been also burned in the process.

"Do I know you by any chance, Stray?" Akane asked with a little interest.

"You really don't remember me," The Stray said in a small tone that was barely heard by Akane. She was about to ask for his name but stopped as she saw Raw power radiating throughout his whole body. "YOU DON'T REMEMBER ME ,YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE FAMILY YOU KILLED!" He roared before chucking a steel beam in Akane's direction.

Akane takes out a card form her Battle Deck and throws it up in the air before jumping in order to dodge the beam. The card she had thrown became a bright glowing rectangle, through which Akane passes into, and when she came out from the other side of that rectangle and landed back on the floor, her civilian clothes were gone and she was now wearing Her Exorcist Uniform.

A uniform which consisted of a white leather mini-jacket which adorned a Cross as well as Epaulettes that gave the jacket a militaristic look, like something a colonel of the 60s would wear. Beneath the short jacket, a short tight dress sprawled down her torso. With a belt wrapped around the waist area, the dress nicely displayed some of the slimness of her figure. Gossamer black thigh highs covered her smooth legs like a dark second skin. Finally, she had leather boots, the fabric of which reached even her knees. It was an outfit some fashion designers would be envious of, as it managed to put intimidation and elegance in sync.

The Stray Demon quickly attacked her while she was putting away the card carrying her civilian clothes in her Battle Deck ,forcing her to quickly dodge and start with setting up the usual trap set up by exorcists in Stray Devil Hunts. Something that generally involves a team of three members which she did not have, she could use clones but that divide in her magic would be more of a hindrance in a hunt like this.

"Is it a demon of Wrath or Pride?" Akane thought to herself as she was maneuvering around his wide swipe attacks, "He did get enraged when I didn't recognize him so maybe Pride." She thinks as she launches another spear ,which this time goes through the demon's right hand and gets stuck to the pillar behind him, and for a good measure shot the ceilings near him as well making its structural integrity so weak that it started to fall on the demon when he tried to get unstuck, buying her more time.

Akane raised her hand and started reciting the incantation ,"Beyond the ends of a thousand hands, the hands of darkness out of reach, the archer of heaven that goes unseen, road that guides the way, wind that ignites the embers converge where I point." Soon, a few points started to appear beneath the stray in a pattern reminiscent to the Big Dipper constellation, "Bullets of light, Bodies of Eight, rays of nine, hands of heaven, treasures of speed, wheels of immensity and canons of grey. The Bow is drawn and fades in the light" The endpoints of her left hand's fingers and those of her right hand's middle and index fingers started to glow and she placed them on top of each other. And with a loud angry roar, the Stray came out of the debris that he was buried under, and inadvertently steps on the Seven points which started quickly turning into bright magic seals. "May the Seven Stars bring judgment upon you …Grand Chariot." With this, the incantations of the spell were finally finished and seven magic seals appeared above the stray and started firing light attacks nonstop, who was standing adjacent to the seals above.

The ensuing nonstop attack hid the screaming Stray's body within the light as well as created a large dust cloud which covered the entire area. The attack continued on for 20 secs before the seals faded away, the stray had stopped screaming ,which would mean he is dead ,though Akane couldn't confirm that fact until she sees his body, which was hidden with the Dust clouds, which will take a while to settle down ,seeing no options left ,Akane quickly raised both of her hands in the air, "Wind Style – Air Current Wild Dance" which created air currents in the palms of her hands which she started to use to whip up dust clouds in the area.

As Akane was whipping up the dust cloud ,the Stray's hand came out of the thick clouds and punched her point blank in the mid-section with enough force that she was thrown backward into the concrete wall, which created cracks in the wall because of the resulting impact.

Akane fell to her knees as she landed back in the floor and was coughing up blood. She had felt some of her ribs crack when the stray punched her. "Of course my Spell didn't finish the job." Akane thought bitterly as she got back onto her feet while still feeling the effects of the attack, "You don't have Faith." She remembered what Griselda always told her when she practiced spells with her, and she was right in a way as when she, Irina and Xenovia cast the same spell without the Incantations, their result were vastly different to hers, as they used their faith to channel their spells while she used sorcery ,and it showed as her spell was much weaker than theirs. If she wanted to match the effects they got, she had to do the spell with the entire Incantations, which are generally used to make spells stronger.

"Still, the spell should have killed the stray, weak or not it was still light magic. I would have understood if I was fighting a Stray Devil but he is a Stray demon, now they are more vulnerable to light than a normal devil." Akane thought to herself as she saw the Stray come out of the dust cloud ,while he was very much alive ,he didn't look like he was in a very good condition as one of his horns were now broken off from his head and his fur looked like it was on fire, as it emitted smoke.

"Well, at least it did some damage," Akane said to herself, "Still, I am pretty much out of mana at the moment. Looks like I have to finish this beast as an Orimura rather than an Exorcist of True cross." She said out loud with a chuckle as she wipes the blood from her mouth.

As she was contemplating a plan on how to fight the stray, who it seemed was getting stronger by every minute, she felt a slight chill in one of her hands ,when she checked, it was the hand she had wiped her blood with and it was picking up the wind that was coming from her back ,through the entrance of the construction site, she chuckled and quickly started making a few hand seals. And spat out a thick smokescreen from her mouth, which started covering the whole area thanks to the wind she felt earlier. The smokescreen was so thick that the stray tried to use his hands to blow it away but couldn't as even more smoke came in.

"I generally don't get to use this Jutsu more often, mostly because even a slight miscalculation can come to bite me back in the arse, but unfortunately for you, Stray, our current situation is ideal for the use of this Jutsu." Akane told him as she raised her hand so it could slightly touch the small amount of smokescreens, which were in front of her and were slowly moved away by the wind, "Fire Style – Burning Ash Pile" and with a snap of her fingers a small spark of fire was created which lit the whole smokescreen up instantly, resulting in a violent explosion ,which hits the Stray point blank ,who was standing in the middle of the smokescreen.

The Explosion brought a bright smirk out of Akane who had been dying for a chance to use this Jutsu in the field for years but because of the specific conditions that were needed for the safe use of this Jutsu she never used it before. Still, she knew the job was not over yet as ,while this Jutsu might have killed a lesser Stray, the one she was currently fighting was easily in the higher B or lesser A-Class range ,a class which generally, a team of 4 or 5 Exorcists, and only one way of killing him permanently without the use of any light-based weapons or spells, would be cutting off his head.

Akane took a card out from her battle deck, which disappeared in light and soon a katana with an ornate bronze guard with, the Tsuka ("handle") having a traditional gold wrapping, with black ornaments, and the Tsuba ("guard") of the blade being octagonal. The tsuka-ito ("warping") seems to be braided from white and dark blue material. The blade features several intricate ornaments, most notable is a relief of a dragon at the endpoint of the hilt. The scabbard of the blade is black, made of traditional lacquered wood, and features several metallic ornaments on its far end. it also features a yellow sageo, the cord used to tie the katana to the waist.

Akane raises her left hand holding the sword with her fingers one scabbard, and her thumb trying to push the sword out its handle ,"Of course you won't come out." she thinks before she softly recites, "Rest in this, my bruised and weary soul:

I was a wretch, chosen to be a beauty;

a Whore, chosen to be a bride;

an orphan, chosen to be an heir;

an enemy, chosen to be a friend.

I deserved nothing but wrath and death

yet received everything of life and grace.

Come forth and Be our salvation Bakuya Masamune!" And with that, her thumb finally pushed the sword slightly out of its sheath. The explosion had now subsided and her nose was picking up the smell of charred flesh coming from within the residual Dust Cloud caused by the explosion. She was sure that this smell was coming from the stray as the dead bodies used in Qliphoth when burnt, don't smell mostly because they are generally dry husks with nothing left inside. While the smoke limited her vision of what was going on inside, she was really not going to try and whip the dust cloud away via a wind Jutsu again, the best thing she could rely on was her sense of smell and her reflexes.

As she pumped chakra in both her nose and eyes to enhance them, her eyes quickly turned red and were now sporting three tomoe's which were connected by a circular black line revolving around the black irises, which were reading the movements in the Dust cloud quite keenly. Her nose also seemed to pick the direction from where the smell was coming from and with her sword in hand she slowly and quietly enters the dust cloud hoping to get a surprise drop on the Stray if possible.

Following the smell through the Dust cloud seems to be doing its job ,as she felt like she was getting closer and closer to the Stray by every step she takes, but predicting his position was tricky as there are chances she might appear before his face first, and she really can't do anything about it. What she did not expect was for the stray to jump towards her direction head first something she saw coming from a mile away and quickly offed his head from his shoulders with a quick slash of her sword. The Stray's whole body dropped near her feet while his head rolled away. The whole thing felt rather anti-climactic in Akane's opinion ,as even she had never encountered a demon of wrath who would attack in such a sloppy way, yeah their Berserkers Rage tends to diminish their thinking capabilities, they still have excellent fighting instincts that made them dangerous.

"Well, I guess you will be the first Dumb demon I have ever hunted." She said with a slight chuckle present in her voice as she kicks the demon's overgrown hand, "Hmm…. Why is the body not disintegrating? That would explain why the devils are not here." Akane said to herself as checks the time ,"11:45 PM ,yup, they are not commahhhh-" The stray's overgrown hand quickly grabs Akane by her waist locking both of her hands ,which made her drop her sword on the ground ,the stray slowly got back up to his feet still headless which shocked the hell out of Akane, "AAHHH HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" Akane screamed as the demon started to squeeze her as she tried to wiggle her arms out the Demon's grasp but failing miserably.

While she couldn't make any hand signs with her hands ,she could control her sword and with a slight movement of her fingers, started to guide it towards the arm of the stray ,and when the sword was in position ,she gave it the command to stab it through which did lessen the pressure a bit ,but she still couldn't get out.

Soon the pressure started to increase again and this time he was applying even more force than before. Akane could only scream in agony as she started lose consciousness, she felt that there was no choice left, the tomoe's in her eyes quickly rotated in itself and formed an intricate pattern "Amaterasu" Akane strangely whispered as her left eye started bleeding and soon black flames appeared on the stray's hand and quickly released Akane out of his grasps, she fell flat on the concrete floor where she saw the Black Flames consuming the strays entire body as he tried to put the fire out before everything blacked out.

Unknown Location

11:50 PM

"Well That was something." An alluring voice said in amusement, though if concentrated well enough, the gravel can also be heard present in her voice, "I really didn't expect her to find him first." She said, while looking at a screen which showed the construction site, as well as destruction caused by the battle, and Akane can be seen lying in middle of the black flames ,unconscious.

"True." Another voice commented, "Still we got what we wanted, he served his purpose well." She added as she got up from her chair from which she was watching the battle.

"Should I go and bring her here?" The voice from before asked.

"No, she is much more useful there." Another voice replies before leaving the dimly lit room through the door.

Construction site

2:34 AM

With a loud groan, Akane wakes up ,"Shit that fucker really did a number on me!" She said to herself as she calls her sword back and uses it as a support as she gets back to her feet. Looking around the construction site, she only found Amaterasu Black flames still burning though with no active target it was now spreading outwards slowly. Her eyes catch something lying on the ground near her, it was a chess piece and a Pawn piece at that, with a single hand sign she dispels Amaterasu whose flames fade away immediately as she picks chess piece up.

"What the hell is going on? If the devil still had a piece ,why are the devil's not here?" She thought to herself as she examined the Evil Piece not sure what to make of the situation. She had encountered a few strays before who still had their pieces in them and sooner or later a devil will always arrive to retrieve that piece so it could be given back to the master of the stray. It's a common protocol shared amongst Devils and Exorcist when hunting strays in the territory that is not owned by a devil.

"I will deal with this tomorrow for I need to go back home and heal." She said as she put the Evil piece away and brought out her Limbo card and the card that contained her civilian clothing from her Battle Deck and threw them both forwards. The Limbo Card she threw turns into a bright rectangle with the size of a door and the second cards containing her cloths passes through the door and become another door right in front of the previous one. Once both the doors are in place Akane passes through the first one and instantly, she was out of the Purgatorio and was back in the Mortal realm and when she passes through the second door her Exorcist uniform changes back into her normal civilian clothing, once done both cards return back to her where she places them in her Battle Deck. She would have just used Shunshin no Jutsu to get back at her apartment but she needed the little chakra she has left for healing the wounds once she reaches her apartment and with her sword, in hand she heads back to her apartment.

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