Author note: -
Readinglover3 - Fascinating. I look forward to see which peerage and king Akane is assigned to. She's not going to take the place of an already established queen in cannon, is she? Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing how this goes and am enjoying your story so far! Can't wait for the next chapter!
Response – I hope this chapter answers your questions Readinglover3 and thank you for leaving a review
Chapter-5
"Sorry for being late, I came as quickly as I could," The Current Satan Beelzebub Ajuka said as he quickly stepped over a green magic circle, leftovers from his teleportation spell. Taking a seat at the round table he exchanged quick greetings with his three colleagues.
"Don't sweat it Ajuka, we've barely sat down ourselves." Sirzechs Lucifer responded with a smile.
"So, why did you call this impromptu meeting Sirzechs? Weren't we scheduled to meet tonight for my report anyway?" Ajuka asked his best friend, "I've even had that game Millicas was interested in, bought, and gift wrapped. I was hoping to give him that tonight." He said with a smile.
Sirzechs shared looks with Serafall Leviathan and Falbium Asmodeus before summoning an evil piece to his hand, which immediately wiped Ajuka's smile off his face.
"Another attack took place last night. Similar to the previous cases we've been getting reports about. A stray demon entering a devil's territory unnoticed." Sirzechs informed them.
"And why is some stealthy stray getting too big for his boots, grounds for calling this meeting early?" Falbium was the first to respond, his right temple resting against his hand closed in a fist.
"It took place in Kuoh." His friend continued while putting the chess piece on the table.
"Shit." Ajuka cursed under his breath, "Is everybody okay? Did someone get hurt?"
Satan Green snorted, "If by someone you mean who I think you mean Beelzebub then I'd wager no. I'd be halfway through mobilizing our forces for war if that were the case." He said, gently stroking his pristinely cut goatee.
"You know it Fal-chan! " Serafall added, her voice a well-known to Ajuka mix of cheer and something dangerous, usually reserved for veiled diplomatic threats but mostly used when talking about her little Sona's wellbeing. "But no Aju-chan, fortunately, a third party took care of the stray before he could hurt anybody. My Sona and little Rias did not even know there was a stray in their territory. They found out about it today when they were approached by a third party who also provided them the Evil piece she collected from the stray." Serafall continued in a more level tone.
"Good, good, good, that's… a relief." Ajuka let out a breath he didn't even know was keeping in and picked the evil piece up to examine it.
"Indeed, but moving on, addressing your previous question Falbium, I deemed four attacks in a single month a sufficient enough reason for an early meeting. We hope you've had enough time for the investigation, Ajuka" Sirzechs told him while he himself was busying himself with summoning his equipment.
"Don't worry about it Sirzechs, I'm done with the last three, just give me a minute to work with this piece. " His friend nodded.
"Hmmm, this one is the same as the other Evil pieces you provided me with,"
"Okay, but can you tell us why we can't track these like usual?" Falbium asked.
"Well, Falbium, it's because these pieces are not "ours", to begin with," is his response.
"Not ours? Someone's trying the replicate the Evil Pieces?"
"Yes, and to be frank doing a very piss poor job at it" Ajuka adds looking a bit annoyed.
"Piss poor How Aju-chan?"
"Well, what's the most basic function of an evil piece?" He asked Satan Pink.
Serafall gave Ajuka a quizzical look before responding, "Making a new devil, right? Unless you're about to pull a big reveal on us with the actual nefarious goal of the system?!" She exclaimed.
Taking her antics in stride Ajuka responded, "Yes to the first question no to the second," looking at the piece on the table his face contorted in disgust, "these things can't even do that right, they don't turn you into a devil. No, they turn you into a stray demon without even the use of a Qliphoth." He explained.
"Well, that would certainly explain why the stray in Kuoh was trying use a Qliphoth." Sirzechs said while rubbing his chin.
"Did he now? Hmm Interesting, if we could capture one of these strays, I might be able to find out more."
"What part of undetectable don't you understand, Ajuka? " Falbium snarked, "It's no longer a more or less organized hunt for a stupid stray, and on top of that these rats are difficult to put down. Couple all that with our boys underestimating strays and we end up with our scouts at best barely able to survive their confrontation with these bastards. We sustained losses from just fighting them. But taking one of the bastards alive? You're asking me to throw a lot of bodies on the sacrificial pyre for a long shot here."
"What do you want me to do then Falbium? These pieces can only provide us with limited information, faint traces of genetic data are not enough. I need a live specimen to give us some answers here." Ajuka shot back.
"There must be something we could salvage form these pieces Ajuka. Maybe a way to track their movements or even their last known location. It might help us set up an ambush to capture one of them alive." Serafall piped in trying to calm them down.
"That would be easier said than done Serafall. There is nothing there we could use to track them as I am pretty sure even the person that created these cheap knock offs can't. The most I could do is create… an alarm system. It could, in theory, detect that a stray is inside its range, but it won't be able to tell you its exact location." Ajuka replied.
Serafall nodded absentmindedly as she looked at the piece placed at the center of the table, "Hey Sirzechs-chan did little Rias mention anything about how that Orimura girl was able to find this stray? Reports say she attacked first; she did destroy the Qliphoth right?"
"She did, right? Hmmm, how could I have missed this?" Sirzechs muttered.
"Wait, Orimura as in Akane Orimura? She's the third party that took care of the stray?" Ajuka asked.
"Yes, if it's the same Orimura you're thinking about of course, do you know her Ajuka?"
"No, I don't know her, but I do know of her. Girl's one of the reasons why development of the Brave Saints was such a slog," Ajuka responded a little bit annoyed.
"Ohhh, I do remember you being grumpy about someone wasting your time. Though you never really told us the full story. Did she delay the Development process on purpose?" Serafall asked.
"Okay, first of all, I wasn't being "grumpy" I was just… mildly displeased. As for Orimura, she didn't delay the development on purpose, but she was one of the reasons why it took so much time." Ajuka replied. "She was a fresh exorcist recruit at the time I was developing the Brave saints for the Angels. Supposedly she had an unknown sacred gear. Azazel who was helping me out at the time, mostly with angel physiology, was asked to look into Orimura's potential sacred gear"
"And let me guess, after that the project started to move at a snail's pace," Sirzechs asked while cracking a smile.
"Yes, well no, it started moving at a snail's pace, but someone stepped on that snail and it fucking died. Azazel's obsession with sacred gears paralyzed the project for a time. Oh ,and the absolute best part about all this is, that the supposed sacred gear turned out to be some blood ability or bloodline or whatever. So yeah, not only Azazel wasted his time, he wasted my time as well, all for nothing." Ajuka sighed while Sirzechs and Serafall assumed thoughtful expressions.
"She was just a kid back then, looks like she's gotten strong over time if she was able to take down the stray on her own."
"And from the look of things, she might know how to track these strays down. We should send someone to talk to the girl." Falbium suggested.
"Oh, oh, I will go!" Serafall volunteered immediately getting up from her seat a broad smile on her face.
"Should have expected this?" Falbium thought to himself as he rubbed his temples in annoyance, "I know you want to visit your sister but, ah, volunteering to go on a mission like this is a bit much. You are a Satan for Lucifer's sake send a scout or something." He scolded her.
"Calm down Fal-chan, it's not what you think it is. Sona asked me to come to recruit the Orimura girl to my peerage." Serafall explained.
"For your peerage? You do not have… Ohh you have got to be kidding me! You are going to waste your queen on this girl just because your sister asked you too?!" Falbium asked incredulously, his right brow threatening to shoot off and start its journey to outer space, as he looked at her nod in response.
"It's not like I'll be wasting my queen piece Fal-chan, she's worth three queens and has a bloodline. I get a new queen, the Sitri get a potential new bloodline, my Sona is happy, it's a pretty sweet deal in my opinion." Serafall explains her reasoning to a gradually more resigned Falbium.
"Fine, do what you want, not like I could ever prevent any of you whippersnappers from doing something stupid. Just give us an update on the situation, okay?" Falbium said getting up from his seat.
"I will." Serafall replied and with a nod to his colleagues, Falbium left them via Summon seal.
"Three queens huh... It might be the first time I have ever heard of that high of a price, then again we never really tried to recruit an experienced Longinus user, theoretically they would be costlier." Ajuka commented, "Still, three queens is impressive. I should have asked Azazel about how her bloodline worked. He did a pretty in-depth study on it." He added getting up from his seat as well.
"Well, I guess good luck on your recruitment pitch Serafall. Please inform me immediately about your findings when you return," Ajuka said "Sure thing Aju-chan and thanks!" he nodded.
"And Sirzechs tell Lucretia to visit her brother sometimes," Ajuka said before leaving through the summon seal as well, leaving Sirzechs and Serafall alone.
Sirzechs keeping quiet for a while spoke up "Serafall…er, I think you should let Grayfia recruit her." He suggested.
"What? Why?"She complained.
"Serafall, you hardly have time for your sister nowadays, what makes you think you will have time to train a potential queen? You are always busy, and your work is important. Let Grayfia take her in, she is relatively free nowadays." He explained.
"Hmmm, nope, however I think about it, it just seems like you are trying to snatch her up for your family." Serafall quickly turned towards Sirzechs with her fingers pointing accusingly at him.
Sirzechs held both of his hands up, "Now now Serafall you know I don't care about family politics. The only reason I am suggesting this is that Grayfia would be able to both train and keep an eye on her at the same time. Plus, after her initial training with Grayfia is done you two could always trade." He said.
"Okay let's say I accept. Do you think Grayfia will agree to take her in? You know how she is on matters like these." She said.
"Why wouldn't she? This isn't a permanent arrangement; she just needs to train her as well as screen her. After that, you could take her Serafall. We can't have some girl we picked up from nowhere as a Satan's queen. The veritable shitstorm of complaints and the sheer responsibility of such a position require us to make sure that we can trust her." Sirzechs explained.
"You do realize that this might be the first time my Sona asked for something from me for ages, right?" Serafall asked him she understood the reasoning behind Sirzechs, suggestion but she also did not want to disappoint her little sister.
"Sona will understand the reasons behind this decision." Sirzechs reassured her.
"Fine then, call Grayfia, let's get this over with." Serafall grumbled.
Sirzechs nodded and send a summon to his queen and within a few seconds, a blueish white summoning seal appeared before them and from that seal a women appearing no older than twenty-five, but it never was a tell with devils, back-length silver hair that enveloped a beautiful face with long braids on each side with small blue bows at the ends. Instead of her usual maid outfit, she opted for more casual wear,"Do you need something of me. Master?" she asked bowing before them.
"There's no need for you be so formal Grayfia, especially when today's your off day, I apologize for interrupting it." Sirzechs remarked sheepishly.
"Fine." Grayfia replied with a sigh as she stood up straight and crossed her arms, "What Is it?"
"Again, terribly sorry for interrupting your free time but you see, in the report about the stray in Kuoh both Rias and Sona happened to mention that a third party, one Akane Orimura caught the stray off guard in a surprise attack. Thanks to Ajuka we now know that the stray in Kuoh is pretty much similar to the other one we didn't track. So, I want you to go and talk to her about the stray and how she was able to track the beast. It might provide us a way to tackle this growing problem."
While Grayfia understood what she needed to do she still couldn't understand why she was chosen for the task ,"While I have no problem with doing this job. I must ask why are you sending me there and not just some messenger? It's an easy enough mission." She asked them both, Sirzechs and Serafall shared a look.
After a few moments of awkward silence, it was Serafall who replied, "We also need you to recruit Akane Orimura as a member of your peerage." She answered without beating around the bush much like Sirzechs would have done.
Beta Reader:- Polkxe, Echoes19