Chapter-10

"YOU!" Raynare spat out as she sees who had attacked her.

"Oh, so you know me. Good that saves me some time," said Akane as she quickly throws two cards from her battle deck in front of her. A large gate of light was created then, and as she passed through it, she came out on the other end dressed in her exorcist uniform, holding her sword, "Leave before I get in a mood to pluck your wings off one by one, Fallen." She warns her, as she takes Bakuya out of its sheath and points it towards her.

"This has nothing to do with you, Orimura. Leave at once." said Raynare getting up, before she ditched her civilian dress and revealed her four sets of wings as well as her fallen angel uniform. Black leather boots, jeans, corset, and a jacket. It was their standard uniform, which Akane had seen countless times. She thought it looked like a gimp suit with a jacket – just shy of a mask, though.

"Oh! That's where you are wrong Fallen, you see not only are you here trespassing in my Masters territory but you also now just killed the boy she wanted to make her servant." Akane explains to her. "That, my dear, carries a death sentence, but fortunately for you this situation is still salvageable. Just leave Kuoh and I won't kill you." She said giving her the options to back. Akane was of course was lying through her teeth and just was trying….

"So you did become a devil huh…" Raynare said menacingly, "Good! now I can finish the job my mother started." She said as a light spear formed in her hand, "And this time, my uncles won't come to save you." and chucks that spears at her direction.

Akane quickly kicks Issei's body to the side before dodging the light spear herself only for Raynare to launch herself at her after forming another light spear. Akane deflected the tip of the spear using Bakuya's sheath and attacks Raynare who now left open with her sword though she dodged the attack by using her wings to get away.

Akane wasted no time to go after her to close the distance knowing she really can't afford to turn this fight into a long range affair without risking damage to Issei's body. "I am gonna kill that man when I get my hands on him, he promised he would keep you devils busy today." Raynare growled out as they were clashing their weapons.

"So that's the reason why Rias hasn't arrived yet. Clever plan." Akane thinks to herself, "Well jokes on you, my master made sure to leave me behind as standby and looks like her intuitions were right." She replied back, before she bashes her in the head with the sheath which she had reinforced with chakra, which threw Raynare sideways a bit.

The impact of that attack while not being deadly, still did some damage as she can see Raynare's cheeks had swollen a bit and a bit of blood was coming out of her mouth. Akane again went after her closing in quickly and attacked her with a swords slash, though before she could hit Raynare she went airborne.

"Well crap I guess I don't have a choice left!" She sheaths her sword and quickly run towards Issei's body while Raynare start bombarding her. Fire and lighting spell remnants of whom reaches the trees in the surrounding area which catches fire as a result.

As Akane gets near Issei's body she brought out some smoke bombs out of her pockets and threw them towards Raynare's direction. Obscuring her vision for moment, giving Akane enough time to pick his body up and putting it over her shoulder before bailing out of there.

Raynare as Akane expected blew away the smoke with the help of her wings and quickly started to look around for her. "Jump high to your left." Shizuma ordered her through the radio which she immediately followed as she did that a huge ball of fire hit the area where she just was. "She is coming through your left noo jump to your left." she warned again.

"FUCKING DIE ALREADY!" Akane heard her shout from the behind as she jumped to the right and again another big fire ball hit the ground.

"Man, she is really going overboard with this." Akane thought to herself as she was now out of the gardens heading towards the shopping district.

As she was running towards the shopping district she noticed that Raynare was not following her anymore. "Shizuma! Is she still following me?" She asked.

"No. She stopped following you the moment you escaped the garden. After throwing a temper tantrum she is currently on route back to the hotel, I guess, though if she changes route, I will inform you."

"Ok. Thanks for the help back there."

"Oh?" Akane could hear her smile. "Should I expect a reward after the mission is done?"

Akane laughed quietly "Sure, my dear," She said cutting off the connection before stopping at a rooftop of a building in shopping district knowing that Raynare was not chasing her anymore and she takes out her cellphone to call Rias.

"The number you are trying to call is outside the coverage area. Please try again later."

"Fuck! No!" She cursed knowing soon Issei's spirit would pass on, and reviving him would become impossible.

After trying one last time to call Rias, Akane dialed Sona's number. She answered immediately, and for that, Akane was grateful. "What is it Orimura?" Sona asked.

"Issei's dead and Rias hasn't arrived to revive him yet. I even tried to call her cell but it's out of the coverage area." Akane informed him.

Sona stayed silent for a while before replying "…. Well that's strange, maybe the summon seal didn't activate. Akane, try to find a pamphlet with a magic seal on Issei. I am sure Rias would have planted one on him you can summon her using that." Sona replied.

"Ok, hold for a moment while I look for it." She put the call on speaker places the ground before dropping Issei body as well and she started to look for the pamphlet on him.

"He doesn't have a pamphlet on him, Sitri." Akane tells her as she looks at his pant pockets and shirt pockets "Just tell me Where is Rias so I can just take the body to her." She asked.

"Rias went out to hunt a stray demon with her peerage. If you hadn't been able to contact her it means she still is inside the purgatorio. You never will be able to reach her in time." Sona informs her as well as shots down her idea, "Where are you at the moment?" She asked.

"On top of some building in the shopping district. Don't know where I am actually standing through." Akane replied.

"Well then, you are not far from the Academy, meet me there in front of the student council room I have a plan." Sona informed her, "You can enter through the roof, right?" She asked.

"Of course, I can do that." Akane replied as she cuts of the call putting her cell back in her pocket before picking up Issei body and leaving for the Academy.

After running from roof to roof for a full 5 minutes Akane could see that she had reached the academy. She just had to reach the roof so she could just drop-in in front of the Student Council Room. Directly jumping to the roof by supplying chakra to legs would have been something she would have done if she wasn't carrying something on her back as the school the school was four story building and she was currently standing on a two story. It's not like she can't do it she can but wasting all her chakra to perform just one action is not how she was raised. Chakra conservation was an important lesson her grandmother taught her when she was teaching her how to use Fire style techniques.

Flashback

A younger Akane can be seen standing on the fishing plank with her grandmother as they were facing the lake which was not far from their house, placed in the hilly areas of Kuoh.

"Think of today's lesson as a test of sorts." Her grandmother said.

"Please tell me it does not involve those fish again Grandma." She asked, whining.

"No," her grandmother said, smiling. "But when this test is done, you are to be practicing iryo ninjutsu." Her voice grew sterner. "Young lady, I will not be hearing any excuses." She put her foot down. "Not being able to save even a single fish, is unacceptable."

"Now back to the topic at hand." Her grandmother thought for a moment. "Ah, yes, the reward! I almost forgot about that." Something flickered, and Bakuya appeared in her grandmother's hand. "This, my dear, is the reward. If you pass the test, Bakuya will be yours and I will start teaching you kenjutsu. But – if you fail – then say goodbye to both the sword and the lessons."

Akane, who had been getting bored of healing fish, was almost jumping at the possibility of learning something new. Her eyes sparked with excitement. "Ok," she asked, "what do I have to do to pass this test?"

"It's good to see that you are excited. Now activate your Sharingan and watch me closely." She instructs her ,Akane ,who channeled chakra into her eyes, which quickly morphed revealing red eyes with two tomoe in her left eye and one tomoe in her right.

As instructed, she watched her grandmother as she performed a few hand seals. "Fire Style- Great Fireball jutsu." She said, before she bellowed flames out of her mouth which took the form of a huge orb and hit the center of the lake creating a small shockwave.

After the small waves of water had stopped, her grandmother again started to perform hand seals "Fire style- Dragon fire jutsu." Her grandmother fires out a fire which takes the shape of a dragon head on its way and hit were the pervious techniques, resulting in an another shock wave this time, it was a little bit stronger than before as it created waves of water that hit the fishing plank and wetted their feet.

Again, after waiting for the waves to calm down she started to perform hand seal, this one being much longer than before, there were 22 hand seals in total when she counted them, "Fire style- Fire Dragon Bullet jutsu." She said before taking in a large amount of air and spat a continuous stream of fire at a straight line which was getting hotter by every second. This jutsu when it hit the water in didn't cause any explosion on impact as it was a continuous steam of fire it did however caused steam to cover a large area if the lake.

"This is your test Akane, you need to use one of the jutsus I showed you just now at an acceptable level and take Bakuya off my hand to pass this test." She informed her, "Do you have any doubts or a question you need to ask me before starting?" she asked.

"Yeah just one. Would you fight back or run away when I come to retrieve Bakuya from you?" She asked.

Her grandmother chuckled after hearing her question, "The moment you are done showing me the jutsu. I would not move a bit from my spot, I promise." she said to her.

"Ok then." Akane replied, satisfied with her grandmother's answer, she steps forward and stands where she was standing while using the Jutsus. Though it was her first time seeing those Jutsus being performed, thanks to her sharingan ,she knew how to perform them right away as it one of the primary functions of her bloodline so she can understand the theory behind the use any jutsu she sees being performed but whether she can use that jutsu or not depended upon two factors one being the nature of technique being used, is it a fire style jutsu? Or a water style jutsu? And second factor is how much chakra she is going to need to perform the jutsu. If a jutsu meet these factors, then she can use that jutsu and the three she just saw her grandmother perform met those factors.

Firstly, all the Jutsus she just saw her grandmother perform were Fire Style Jutsus and if what she had read in their family scrolls was correct then pretty much every member of her family had an affinity for fire style Jutsus which helped them learn and master them quickly and she wasn't an exception to that.

Second, was the chakra cost how much she needed to perform each jutsu. Due to her training with her Grandmother, she had enough chakra to do any of them she wanted for the test. Of course the chakra cost for each jutsu was different and knowing that she decided to do the dragon bullet jutsu as it seemed the toughest one of the three she just saw and she wanted to impress her Grandmother so that she would start teaching her more jutsu like that.

And so she started to perform the hand seals for the jutsu Ox → Monkey → Hare → Rat → Boar → Bird → Ox → Horse → Bird → Rat → Tiger → Dog → Tiger → Snake → Ox → Ram → Snake → Boar → Ram → Rat → Monkey Fire style- Fire Dragon Bullet jutsu and with that she fired out a stream of fire from her mouth. "Ok this is ridiculous, not only is this jutsu emptying out my tank but I am not even able to keep it in the target area I decided upon." Akane thinks to herself as she was using the jutsu while sweat drips down her face.

After seeing that she ,while not have used it perfectly like her grandmother but she did it at an acceptable level and that's what her grandmother asked her to do, also, if she doesn't stop now she might pass out from chakra exhaustion and so she stops. "Looks like you have something of mine Grandma." Akane said as she turned around to see her grandmother only to find out she was not there.

"It's not yours until you can take it off my hands, sweetheart." Her grandmother greeted her from behind. When Akane turned around she found that she was standing a few meters away from where she was on the surface of the water, "And as I promised I won't move so come take Bakuya off my make it yours." She said and placed the sword in her hands and present it to her.

"Crap!" Akane cursed inside her mind in order to reach where her grandmother was standing. She had to water walk, which required chakra that she had all but used up for that jutsu.

The confidence in which she usually walks, runs or jumps on the surface of water every morning is now gone. As she tentatively took the first step on the surface of the water which reminisced of baby trying to walk on her feet for the first time and like a baby she falls after taking just another step falling through the surface of water, only to be greeted by the fish who were swimming below the surface without any care in the world.

"Do you realize what your mistake was here?" Her grandmother asked her, as she was swimming back to the fishing plank.

She rose from the water and took a seat on the plank her shoulders dropped "I don't know, have larger chakra reserves, I guess."

"Did you say something sweetheart? It's hard to hear you with that pity dick in your mouth." She said to her,"Now give me a proper answer." she barked out.

"I said have larger chakra reserves." She was cut off as her grandmother's palm scoured her cheek, "Ouch," she moaned weakly.

"Your mistake was to show off. You could have passed the test easily by using the other two lesser Jutsus…. But no. You used the harder one and emptied your chakra reserves in the process. What would have happened if you were in a life or death scenario and you pulled something like this against your opponent? What would have happened if that opponent managed to dodge that attack or had someone hiding in shadow to strike you from behind?" She scolded her.

"An Orimura doesn't show off. We don't fight with honor as that's for the gods. We are the blood of Gods. We don't seek Glory as it is for the dead and we survive at all costs. Remember these words..."

"As they have helped our ancestor to survive long enough till we had you and you don't want that to go to waste." Akane remembered her grandma words from that day that made her smile softly as she wall walked up to the roof of the building.

When she reached the top of the building the Student council room's door can be seen clearly, and she saw Sitri standing there waiting for her arrival. It didn't take Akane long to reach her, "Sitri", She greeted her.

"You are here, good let take him inside." She told her as she opened the school council room and entered with Akane in tow.

"Lay him on that table." Sona said, pointing.

"So, what are you going to do here?" Akane asked as she was laying Issei body down on the table.

"We don't know when will Rias would return from her hunt and we don't have much time left before reviving Issei would be not possible. That's why I am turning him into a devil." Said Sona as she brings out a velvet box when opened it revealed her evil pieces inside of it.

"Oh oh, naughty, naughty stealing a potential servant away from Rias huhh?" Akane asked, as in general she didn't care who got Issei at the end. She just needed to do something for them and saving Issei was that something now she expected to be rewarded by one of them. And if they did try to back out from finding someone who can turn her into a devil she would use this as a leverage as devils are famous for being fair in a deal as if you did something for them they will after reward you in return. Though she would be lying if she said backstabbing and political intrigue did not entertain her.

"If you have the opportunity to make something yours and you do it it's not considered stealing but taking advantage of a situation. Though rest assured you don't have to worry about me taking him away from Rias as I promised her that I will not take Issei and I intend to keep that promise." Sona replied.

"Wait how does that work? Shouldn't you turning him into a devil make you his master?" Akane asked.

"It would through Devils can trade servants from each other so I can give Issei to Rias and in return she would give back the pieces I would use to resurrect him." Sona answered before placing her one hand over the stab wound. "Now let see how much are you worth Issei?" She said as Akane saw a similar sight of blood taking a shape of a chess piece which finally revealed itself to be a queen piece.

"Ohh, Rias you owe me big for this." Akane heard Sona say it to herself as picked up all the pieces present inside the box and places them on Issei stomach.

"I, Sona Sitri, hereby order you, Issei Hyoudou, to heed me. Bring your soul back to this world and serve me as my servant devil. You shall be my pawn." Akane saw Sona say those words while a pale blue magic seal formed under Issei which was big enough to cover his entire body started to rotate. As the pieces started to glow as they turned translucent and entered his body the stab wound, quickly started to heal itself leaving no signs behind of that injury.

"Is it done?" Akane asked.

"Yeah, his injuries are now healed, and his body went through the resurrection process with any problems. Though he will still be unconscious for a while." Sona replied.

"Hmm. Do you mind if can take a look?" Akane asked her she was interested in knowing how far the resurrection process healed his injuries.

"Sure. Help yourself out."

Akane nodded and bended her knees. Her hand started go glow green as she began the diagnostics jutsu on his body ,while she was not super familiar with devil physiology. In fact, she needed to ask Rias if she could get her hands on some medical journals written for devil physiology as her normal venom and gas based weapons might not work on them as she needed to find alternatives as using holy water would be overkill, while she was busy doing that Sona was observing her.

Sona was informed about her abilities by both Rias as well as by Azazel research which she had given a through read and she was conflicted about Akane. On the one hand, she was thrilled such a powerful bloodline existed and after her initial training with Grayfia, she would be joining her sister's peerage and by extension joining the Sitri which also meant that if she marries someone inside the Sitri, her children and subsequent clan that she wanted would be Sitri's vassals.

But on the other hand, she also knew that bloodline might also cause in fighting between the pillars. And she knew that would happen as it already does happen when two devils want to recruit someone with a strong sacred gear. In fact, a few months ago, she and Rias did fight each other in order to decide who gets Issei and that fight was for a scared gear you know a thing that would disappear once the wielder is dead. A bloodline, on the other hand won't disappear and thus are very popular amongst pillars, it was one of the reasons why Rias was being wed to Riser as both families wanted to evolve their bloodlines.

Akane's bloodline, the Sharingan, were too powerful and if the other pillars got a whiff of its abilities, they would try get their hand on it and if that not, they would be stupid. As even if Sona ignores the Holy fire ability ,which can kill any devil if it touches them, her bloodline was still very strong without it, the power to copy any spell and fighting style she sees being performed as long as that ability is not another bloodline is an ability which most devils would kill to get their hands on. And that was her concern as whichever family gets hold of that bloodline and successfully breeds in those abilities, which they would do even though breeding with half devil is something most pure blooded families frown upon she knew they would swallow their pride for that power, similar to when they swallowed their pride to accepted Evil pieces' system in order to survive. Well, that family while it will get very powerful it will as become a target of the other pillars and Sona did not want that for her family.

"Hey ,Sitri." Akane called her out after finishing her diagnostic on Issei which brought Sona out of her train of thought.

"Yeah what is it?" she asked.

"Do you know how these Evil pieces work as I have not seen anything like this before, there are no tears in the tissue, the skin in not delicate like you would expect after an injury it is as if the wound never existed in the first place." Said Akane with wonder.

"That is something only Lord Beelzebub knows about, the only thing we know is that one of the components required to make an evil piece is a devil's blood." Sona answered though she can see her that answer just confused her even more so she elaborated, "Whenever someone gets an Evil piece set they need to provide their blood in order for the production of that set to be complete. It's a popular theory amongst the devils that blood acts as a catalyst for the resurrection process as well as binding the potentials devil to their masters though it's just a theory."

"Hmm. So what do we do now that is Issei is safe?" Akane asked as she got up.

"We will be going to Akeno's house as Before Rias went out for the hunt I informed her about the meeting. My peerage will also be arriving there once they are done performing their duties" Sona informed them "I will also trade Issei away their so pick him up we gonna need him to be there"

"Ok" Akane replied picking Issei up on her shoulder and both her and Sona leave through transportation seal.

Akeno house, Orimura shrine

When the two of them arrived they saw that Tsubaki was already there, waiting for them. The moment they entered the living room another magic seal appeared. This time it was crimson from which seal Rias, Akeno Koneko and Kiba came out covered in blood.

"Kiba are you okay? What happened?" Tsubaki quickly moved to see him which made Kiba laugh nervously.

"Don't worry Tsubaki this is not our blood, It's just that the hunt got a wee bit messy. We just have some brushes here and there but it's nothing serious." Rias replied calming her worries before she noticed Akane who had Issei on her shoulder, "Akane what's Issei doing here?" She asked pointing towards him.

Sona Sighed before replying,"Why don't you go clean up first? Then I will tell you in peace." Sona suggested as she pointed towards the state they were in which made Rias laugh nervously, "Sure, sure, Akeno can you show Kiba the bathroom he would be using?" Rias asked her queen.

"Yeah follow me, Kiba." Akeno replied as they four of them left to themselves cleaned up.

"Orimura-san please, lay him there on the sofa so I can give him a general check up to see everything is running smoothly as possible." Tsubaki tells Akane who nods and does just that. "So how many pieces did it take?" Tsubaki asked her master.

"8 Pawns." Sona replied taking a seat on the sofa, "and before you say anything. No, we are not keeping him."

"I didn't say anything." Tsubaki replied back which her usual stoic tone, though Akane saw her lips curl up just a little a bit, before she moved towards Issei.

"Ohh, the talk of pawns reminded me, Sitri, why haven't you used any of your pawn pieces?" Akane asked her taking an opposite seat to Sona, "I expected the Pawn pieces to be used first by the devils, but you are the second devil I have seen after Rias who still have their pawns left. Is there something that I am not catching up on here?"

"Yes actually, while pawns are the weakest pieces in a set not counting the mutated ones of course they have the ability be just as strong as any other piece under the right circumstances." Sona tells her,

"Wait, is this related to how, in theory you can have nine queens, ten knights, ten bishops or ten rooks in chess with the help of promotions?" Akane asked.

"Yes, though it's a bit different here, you see a devil with a pawn piece, when enters an enemy territory it can, like in chess, turn into any other chess piece via promotion and how it works here is that the powers of that piece whether its physical or magical stack up on the pawn. Making him strong or stronger than a rook for example." Sona explains it to her.

"Now, why we keep the pawn for the last piece is simple, the stronger your other pieces are the stronger the pawn becomes. Let's take a rook for example, if I turn a human using a rook he has let's say an ability to punch through a tree that the base powers of a rook piece this base power grows with user of course if at the point when that rook can punch through 5 tree at once and then I resurrect another human as a pawn, well when that pawn promotes into that rook he can also punch through 5 trees at once without any training. There are limitations of course but this is a trump card most devils use."

"But how does the enemy territory work? In chess that is the area where the opponent's king start but how does that work here?" Akane asked.

"A king can declare any territory an enemy territory I for example if need be can declare this shrine as enemy territory and if I had pawn, they could now use promotion." Sona answered.

As the two of them were talking, they noticed Rias came down the stairs now clean and dressed in new clothes. Her hair was still wet from the shower, "It will take them 10 to 15 minutes to come out." She said before slumping down on the sofa moaning, "Man those stray demons where a pain in the ass to deal with."

"Demons? As in more than one?" Sona asked.

"Yeah there were two of them." Rias replied.

"Are you nuts?" Sona scolds her, "why didn't you called for backup?" She asked.

"Ohh, Sona, they weren't that tough. The only reason it took us that long to deal with them was when we went kill one the other always interrupted the killing blow." Rias replied.

Akane who had been watching the conversation going silently "It's like someone placed them there deliberately to distract you for a while." She commented.

"What are you talking about?" Sona asked.

Akane sighed before she started telling them what happed with Raynare and Issei ,as well as tell them about their confrontation.

Beta reader-Raquiesha, Echoes19

AuthorNote:- There you go folks. If you had enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review. I would be very thankful.

Also this chapter is again edited by the lovely Raquiesha. Who thankfully was kind enough to edit my jumbled mess. She is awesome and if you hadn't already checked her Dragon age fic on AO3 "Flowers of the Dead" plz do. Its was an amazing read.