Chapter-13
Monday 7:45 Am
Inside the Onsen Even though the room's Temperature was much lower than usual thanks to Sitri magic. The stray's face was drenched in sweat as muffled gasps and sobs struggled to escape the tape over his mouth, the sound of his elbows erratically hitting the wooden chair accompanying it. By the look in his eyes he seemed to be in great pain as he gazed at a calm and silent Akane with terror.
His eyes flicker downwards, trying to deny the rose cutter carried in her hands, slick with red liquid. But he could not deny his severed finger in her other hand.
She drops the finger inside the steel bucket before placing the bloody Rose cutter on the table. "Do you know why I cut off your finger before even questioning you?" she asked as her hand began to glow green as her healing Ninjutsu started to stop the bleeding.
"Because now I am going to ask you a question and if you didn't answer me. Well, now you know the consequences" She explained leaning back on her chair,
"One question." She said raising her bloody right-hand finger up,
"One second."
"And if you don't answer me…" She said picking up the rose cutter "...then goes the other finger." She continued bringing its blades upon his other finger. This intensifies his muffled gasps as he frantically shakes his head sideways begging her to stop.
"Now who is the Stray exorcist you are working under?" she asked ripping the tape off his mouth.
"Bernard Caruso." he answered quickly. Hearing his answer Akane sighed placing the tape back on his mouth. She grabs another finger which he tried to shake off her hand but she did not let go of it. And as the Rose cutter approached his fingers he started squirming, shaking his head as if he was begging her to stop. But she didn't.
She could simply just snip the tip off, but after placing the blades at the base of his finger she paused and readjusted her grip. Slowly, she began to curl her hand into a fist, the Stray squirming and sobbing the entire time. Fresh blood wells up, and it takes only a few seconds before it begins to flood the arm rest, gushing down the sides of the chair to pool on the floor.
The Stray is screaming - well, as best as he could with the duct tape over his mouth. She doesn't even pause, slowly bringing the rose cutter to a close. The Stray's erratic movement of his hand shakes loose the finger and it drops on the floor.
"I am gonna ask you again and this time don't lie. Who is the stray exorcist you are working under?" She asked as she rips the tape off his mouth again.
"freedsellzenfreedsellzenfreed sellzen" He croaked out repeatedly before Akane taped his mouth shut again.
"Good, Now was that so hard?" She cooed as her healing Ninjutsu began to do its work and stop the bleeding, "I mean look at the mess you have just made." She said picking up his finger and shoving it at the strays face as wails started to come out of his mouth, "And all of this could have been avoided if you had just answered truthfully." Akane said with a chuckle as she throws his finger inside the steel bucket.
Wiping her hands clean in one of strays clothes, Akane began questioning him again ,"Now tell me why did Freed Sellzen asked you to bring the girl to Kuoh?" she asked before removing the tape again.
"The fallens, uuhhhh, the fallens were interested, uuhhhhh, in her sacred gear" he replied.
"hmmm, That's interesting." Akane said "What's the name of the scared gear?" she asked
"I don't know much about it other than it can heal people or at least that was what my partner told me." He replied but when he saw Akane pick up the rose cutter, "Please, Please, don't hurt me! STOP! STOP! You have to believe me; I don't know about that!" he began to beg.
"I know that stray exorcists have acquired two packages for the fallen. We know now that the girl happens to be one of the packages. So, what can you tell me about the other one?" she asked as Remnants of stray's blood dropped from the rose cutter as Akane snipped nothing but air as she started at him with a blank face.
"Not much I am afraid, Freed has been keeping that information close to his chest. We only get info that is essential for our current job nothing else. Though I know it's something big otherwise Freed would have brought the other package here as well. He must have been waiting for the heat to subside." He replied as Stray stared warily at the rose cutter with those swollen eyes.
"I feel like you aren't telling me everything. Do I need to give you an incentive to speak again?" Akane said grabbing another finger between the rose cutters.
"NONONONONONO I WILL TALK I WILL TALK I WILL TALK I WILL TALK I WILL TALK!" He says continuously.
"Heh… Fine, talk then." she said with a chuckle as she removed the rose cutter.
With the cutter far away from his fingers the stray takes a sigh of relief before starting "We were supposed to meet with the other team in charge of package no. 2 after delivering the girl." He replied, "If you let me go, I could go there as a spy working for you." He offered, well, offered is not the right word. It was more of a desperation move on his part. He wanted to get out of this room alive and he was ready to sell his comrades secrets for that.
Akane chuckles, which soon turns into full blown laughter as she sees the man bargain for his own life."Hehehehehehehahahahahahahahaha, its funny, heheheh, how things work out right? Hehehahahahaha." She asked amidst her laughter.
Seeing her continue to laugh, the stray joined in on it as well with his nervous laughter "Hehehehehe So am I free?" He asked as Akane's laughter subsides. The hopeful look present in his eyes were an amusing sight for her.
"Don't know yet, you put forward an interesting offer." She began as she takes her seat, "but I still don't know if I can trust you. After all you have already betrayed the trust of the exorcists by becoming a stray. So what's stopping you from double crossing me once you get out of this room?" She asked.
To this he had nothing to say. She saw his hopeful look on his face quickly deflate as head hangs down in defeat.
"But that is something you can fix." She said to him, which brings some shine back in his eyes as he looked a bit hopeful now.
"What do you need me to do?" He asked.
"Hmmm, are you familiar with a magic known as Archive?" She asked him.
"No."
"Well then, I won't bore you with the nitty gritty details on how that magic works just understand that this magic will allow us to read your memories." She told him.
"Now, I can see by your facial expression. Why didn't I use this earlier? It could have saved me my fingers. Well, the answer to that question is quite simple, for this magic to work, we need your consent. Without your consent this, magic doesn't work at all and that's what I want from you." She informed.
"I want to see your previous memories as well as your future memories after you leave this room."
"You want me to work as your personal sting operation camera?" Stray said with a bit of uncertainty in his voice.
"Correct." Akane said patting his head.
"I…I… I consent."
"Hmmm, you replied with some uncertainty there. You do realize that the moment I place this seal on you, I would know whether you do consent or not." She told him.
"I do, I do!" This time he replied with certainty.
"Hmmm… we will see." Akane said, before she sticks the seal on his forearm. The moment that seal is placed, a progress bar saying copying data with 0% appears above the seal in form of a hologram. Though after few minutes of waiting for the bar to progress above 0%, the progress bar disappeared.
This brought a sigh of disappointment out of Akane and a look of confusion out of the stray. "It seems that you did not consent." Akane said out loud.
"BUT I DID CONSENT!" The stray replied.
"Again, with lies. If you had done what I had told you to do, that progress bar would have gone further. Instead it disappeared." Akane replied, "I had hoped losing two fingers would be enough for you to comply with me, but I guess I was wrong." She said, picking up the rose cutter again.
"Nonononononononnononopleaseno I am not lying; I did give you my consent!" he begged incessantly, as she grabbed ahold of another finger between the rose cutter. "Stopstopstopstopplease!" He started screaming as he shook left and right.
And as she was about to chop of another finger, Rias' voice interrupted her, "Akane there has been an emergency." Her voice hitting her ear made her stop as she turned to look at Rias, who was giving her a look as well as pointing towards the glass door. Sighing, Akane removed the rose cutters from his finger and placed them on the table. As she was doing that a large spittle hit her face, surprising her as she took a few steps backwards.
"YOU CRAZY BITCH, YOU WERE GONNA CUT OF MY ANOTHER FINGER FOR NOTHING. SCREW YOU!" Strays shouts can be heard as Akane wipes the spittle of her face shaking with fury as she did so.
"Akane!" Rias called her again, this time as a sort of warning to stop her from doing something stupid.
Akane of course ignored the warning call from Rias and kicked the stray in the side of his head with enough force that the chair falls sideways. And with that she turns around leaves the room through the glass door.
Rias sigh at the sight, before following Akane out of the suite as well.
"Ok, so who called off the session?" Akane asks out loud, the moment Rias enters through the glass door.
"I did." Gasper distorted voice replied.
"Why though? We were almost done there, I just needed to give him some incentive to consent!" Akane asked.
"His consent is really not the issue here, Ms. Orimura. The lock present in his psyche on the other hand is!" He replied.
Seeing the confused expression on Orimura'S face, Sona thought she might have not understood what Gasper had just said so she explained it for her, "In order to stop Individuals with archive from getting sensitive information, some organizations tend to place a Seal, a Mental Lock of sorts, in their people to prevent data breaches."
"I know what a Mental lock is Sitri! Do not forget I used to work for the exorcists. I have some mental locks myself!" Akane retorted to her, before turning to Gasper, "And that's why I am confused! Even if he has a mental lock, why did you stop? Yes, some of his Passive memories might have been quarantined behind a lock sure, but there must be surely some memories outside. How about the stuff that happened this morning surely those memories must be open for you to access?" Akane asked.
"I can't even access his memories of this morning; he is so locked behind a seal." Gasper replied.
"But that's not possible! You are the only archive user who has made direct contact with him all day. How did those memories get locked?" She asked.
Gasper took an audible sigh, before a folder with a seal appeared on a hologram in a center of the room, "Do you notice the absence of any other files present here?" Gasper asked her, she nodded in response
"There should be multiple files present here in the order of the dates containing the memories of that certain day. Normally if you want to lock a memory, you search up that certain day and lock that folder. And that is the thing you need to do manually every time, and you can only lock passive memories. But this is different."
"This Mental lock however... it is unlike any locks that I have ever seen before, it is locking memories on its own without anybody in command and it is instantaneous, the memories of the torture and his dialogue with you are already inside the lock."
"Well, shit!" Akane cursed. "Can you break the lock?" She asked him.
"I can but A- It will take time and I mean a lot of time, and B- Even if I break the lock the person placed the lock might notice." Gasper's response alarmed Akane.
"Does the Exorcists now know we know about their plan?" She thought fearing that the entire job was now compromised.
Seeing Akane's alarmed expression, Gasper replied "You don't have to worry about them knowing about what has just happened. As, even though this Lock is pretty advanced, the person who has placed this lock needs to physically place his seal in order to access the memories."
"What if that person had left his seal on him so that he can access any of his memories?" Akane asked.
"If he had done that, I could have opened this lock in minutes without even alerting him. No archive user is stupid enough to leave his seal on something. If someone else has your seal, well they have access to how your personal archive works." He replied.
Akane takes a sigh of relief but that relief is soon replaced by annoyance, "So how are we gonna access his memories now that user archive is out of the question?" She asked.
"Well, there are other options you can use, it's just that you can't use the most convenient one we have at our disposal." Gasper replied.
Akane nodded after listening to Gasper's response before turning her attention towards the Rias, Sona and Tsubaki "So any suggestions?"
After pondering for a few minutes, it was Rias who replied first. "How about we utilize dream catchers? We just have to make him tell us about one of his memories voluntarily and the dream catcher would do the rest. Sona? If I remember correctly, Kiyome had one dream catcher familiar under her employment, right? Can we use it?" She asked her.
"I am afraid that's not possible now, as that particular familiar started to cause some problem when the mating season began last week, it got so bad that she had to terminate her contract with that familiar." Sona replied.
"Great! Well that is just some spectacular bad timing." Akane said under her breath.
"Well, if the dream catcher familiar is not available maybe we should use a charm instead. I mean how hard can it be to make one. Gasper?" Rias called her servant out.
"Do you want me to transfer all the information regarding a dream catcher charm?" He replied already knowing what was about to be asked from him.
"Yes."
"Fine, though heads up you might suffer a bit of a headache after the transfer is complete. The Info on this subject is a bit too vast." He replied as a progress bar appeared above Rias' head which started to fill up bit by bit.
"Oh I am sure it won't be much, we are talking about a small charOOOHHH MAOU!" A pained moan escaped Rias' lips the moment the progress bar hit 100% and it seemed it was painful enough that she needed a moment to calm herself as well as make sense of all the knowledge she has just received.
"He wasn't kidding when he said it was vast." Rias thought to herself as she massaged her forehead.
"Ok here are the ingredients we are going to need to make a dream catcher charm." She told them, after her mind had fully processed the information it had just received, and she started to list out the ingredients one by one in a way as if she was reading someone's grocery list.
"The subject's hair, enough so that we can braid them together in order to make a pentagram. Subject's nail clippings which we would later need to mix with some tree resin and then put in a batter in order to make ring out of it. The pentagram would go-"
"Ok, Ok, Ok I am gonna stop you right there, Rias." Akane interrupts her, "Can you please tell us how long it would take us to prepare the damn thing?" she asked.
Rias ponders for a moment as she goes through the entire ingredient list as well as the instructions on how to make the charm in her mind. "2 hr. in the least." She gave them a feeble response, now knowing that they cannot go through with her idea.
Hearing this response, Akane gave her a scoff before getting up from her seat with annoyance written all over her and she leaves to sulk in the corner of the room. Seeing this Sona sighed before replying, "I do hope that you know that we don't have that kind of time in our hands?" She asked her.
"I do, but frankly nothing will work in such little time, and that's why I am starting to believe that we delay things." Rias spoke.
"Delay things how?" Tsubaki asked, even Akane who was standing in the corner of the room, turned her ear in their direction.
"The stray's injuries in the hospital reports says that he suffered some severe head trauma, correct?" Rias asked Tsubaki who nodded in response. "So why don't we use that. Let's say that because of his head trauma, he is suffering from amnesia. He doesn't remember anything, not his name or where he came from. All he does remember is that he was supposed to take that girl to the Kuoh church even though he doesn't now know why he was doing that. This will not only give your clone a concrete alibi but it will also provide us time to use other time consuming but reliable methods on the stray, to get that info out of him, and once we have that information, Gasper can easily transfer that info to your clone." She explained.
As everyone in the room pondered over her plan, it was Gasper who spoke first, "While it's a good plan Rias-Buchou, there is a huge hole present in that plan in the shape of that mental lock. Because, if by any chance that mental lock is placed on him by a member from the stray exorcist group and there is a 75% chance of that being the case here, then your plan will fall apart the moment the word amnesia is mentioned." He spoke, getting a look of confusion from Rias, Sona and Tsubaki. Akane meanwhile seemed busy in her own thoughts as she was paying no attention to them.
"Think of it as this, if one of the members of our peerage was suffering from amnesia after an accident. I would have just bombarded them with memories of their past until one of them triggered their conscience enough that their memories come back. And I am pretty sure that the archive user on their side would do the same. So, I am afraid your plan would not work Rias Buchou." Gasper explained.
"So, the only hope for us to find anything about this operation now depends on a stray who might as well double cross us the moment he leaves that room. Fantastic!" Grumbled Sona.
"It's not like we have any others options here." Said Tsubaki before she turns to looks at Akane who was still standing in the corner of the room with her arms crossed and her back turned against them. "It's now up to you Akane, the job is yours after all and we are just hired help. So, you decide what needs to be done." She told her.
Akane kept tapping her finger on her shoulder as they waited for her response. Though instead of giving them a response, she decided to enter the onsen again. Seeing her leave the room through the glass door Rias, Sona and Tsubaki shared a look before they followed Akane inside.
When they all entered the Onsen, they saw her kneeling in front of the unconscious stray cutting through his binds with a scowl on her face and the bloody rose cutters in her hands. "Hmm so she is letting him go and by the looks of things she is not happy about it." Sona thought to herself before her eyes fell on a severed finger lying atop of a puddle of blood. "We also need to reattach those fingers otherwise his employers might get suspicious." "Rias grab those fingers will you? While Tsubaki and I get the table ready." She told her, who nods with a pained smile present in her face.
As she retrieved the stray's severed fingers, Rias was barely able to contain her disgust. "Ughh, you know what, on hind side, using my personal Onsen for an interrogation was a very bad idea. Wait is that a bone hanging out? Ew Ew Ew EW This whole area is unusable now, until it has gone through several thorough clean ups." She thought as she picked the last finger off the puddle of blood.
By the time Rias returned to Sona, she and her queen had already cleaned up the table. There was also a globe of constantly revolving water present at the end of the table floating above a Sitri magic seal.
"Put those fingers inside the water, Rias. Those fingers need to be sterilized first before we even begin reattaching them." Sona told her "And ohh, it looks like Orimura is done undoing the binds, why don't you two help her get him here?" She added as Rias was dropping in the water globe.
"Sure." Rias replied who was at that moment washing her hands clean by letting them caress the surface of the globe. After she was done cleaning her hands, her eyes met Tsubaki who also seemed as if she was done there. "Come one let's get this over with." She told Tsubaki who nods in response as the two of them moved toward Akane, who was putting the rose cutters back in the toolbox.
Seeing that Akane had begun picking up the stray unconscious body, which was still lying sideways with the chair, Tsubaki offered a hand for help, "Here let me help y-" but was immediately stopped when Akane grabbed it tightly.
This alerted both Rias and Sona who left the table and cautiously moved towards Akane.
"Akane-san! What you doing?" Tsubaki asked her as she tried to get her hand free."Come on we don't have time for this we need to heal him. So that he can leave." She reminded her.
"We are not letting him go." Akane spoke quietly, as her head turned towards her and her eyes met Akane's now red eyes with three tomoe present in each eye. Though as she observed them, the tomoe quietly rotated before forming an intricate pattern, the design of which was very reminiscent of the old-school throwing weapons her family used way back in the days.
"So, you do have a plan?" Sona asked, her eyes squinting suspiciously as she crossed her arms.
"I do." Akane spoke, letting go of Tsubaki's arm.
"Well then, tell us what this plan of yours is. Let us hear it so that we can make sure it doesn't have problems like Rias' plan had." Sona asked, which prompted Akane to turn her head around and look at her with those strange eyes as a smirk appeared on her lips.
"I am gonna use one of my bloodline advanced techniques known as Tsukuyomi on him. It's a Genjutsu, an illusion of sorts which will alter the stray's perception of time. Inside of this illusion, he can tell me, as well as show me, all of his memories in a very short time. Think of it as this, inside this illusion I can tell you the entire story of the odyssey page by page within a few seconds." Akane explained it to them.
"Wait… this technique was not mentioned in Azazel's files on you." Rias spoke.
"Of course it wasn't. I have just learned the existence of this technique after reading the tablet in the vault." Akane replied.
"So, if you knew something like this, why did you not use it to begin with? It would have saved us some time." Sona's eyes twitched with annoyance as she spoke.
"She risks going blind after every use of these advanced techniques." Rias, being the one who had actually bothered to read through the entire Azazel's report, answered.
"Correct." Akane replied silently, "Thought fortunately, I won't go blind by this one-time use. Still, I am not happy about the fact that I am forced to use it. Now then, let's wake him up shall we?" She said grabbing the stray by the neck. She started focusing her chakra towards her fingertips burning the stray's neck, which had the desired effect of him waking up screaming in pain.
"Ahhhhh…*cough*cough*cough.*." Akane applied a bit more of pressure ,interrupting his screams immediately as he choked and had a coughing fit while he still tried to get his neck free, "You! What the fuck do you doing this is? Now I told you already I would work for you?" he rasped out.
Akane in return didn't give him any response and just uttered one word as their eyes met, "Tsukuyomi."
-x-
"Ahhhhh my head!" a groan escaped Stray's mouth as he woke up massaging his head. It was then when he noticed some things. A) His fingers were back in a way that seemed they weren't cut off in the first place and B) he woke in a very strange place. The skies were red with black clouds, with a sun or a moon reminiscent of those brats cursed eyes. Even the ground he was sitting on was weird with black grass and a blood red pond present in a walking distance. In fact, if his eyes weren't deceiving him ,he could see a back of a person sitting near the edge of the pond though the distance was making it difficult for his eyes to decipher who it is.
Seeing that this person might be the only one who could know what was up with this place, as there were nobody around him ,not even animals and insects, he got up on his feet decided to make his way towards the pond.
"HEY! HEY!" He screamed in the direction of this person to get his attention as he jogged his way closer and closer to the pond though he did not respond to him.
When he finally reached the pond he immediately moved toward the person ,"Hey You! I was calling you, why did you respond to me?" He asked, but after not getting a response he grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around revealing the face of his torturer to him. "Youuuuu!" He backed away so quickly that he fell on his arse.
"Welcome to Tsukuyomi, Stray." The cursed girl, his torturer, spoke with a smirk on her face as she looked down on him with only her right eye. Her left seemed to be missing and in its place there was only a black void present making her look even more demonic. "The rules of this place is simple, I will let you go scoot free the moment you have told me everything about yourself. Your childhood, how you joined the exorcists and betrayed them as well as your time as a stray exorcist. Everything."
"And if I don't?" he asked caustically.
"Ohhh I am so glad that you asked me that question." The demon spoke with a maniacal smile on her face. She took a deep breath in with her mouth which raised enough red flags for him that he scrambled to get on his feet and run away from her, but alas, he was too slow and black flames came from his back, enveloping his entire body in fire.
He didn't think anything else would surpass the pain he felt when his fingers were being cut off, but who knew how wrong he was at that time, as now that pain seemed minor when comparing to what was he feeling right now.
Everything burned and the pain got even worse when he tried to move. And no scream that came out of his now charred mouth could encapsulate the amount of pain he felt at that point. Even the thought of screaming hurt as it seemed the flames had entered his mouth and burned his tongue off or that was what it felt like at least.
And as it seemed that death was approaching him, the excruciating pain disappeared entirely. As when he opened his eyes, he found himself kneeling on some surface staring at his reflection in the red water. And aside from the red hue present there in the reflection, he seemed fine. His hands and legs were now chained sure, but he was fine, no signs of charred flesh were present aside from a slight irritation he was feeling all over his body.
As he continued to look at his own reflection, the girl's own reflection joined his own as well, the only difference was that she was standing before she spoke, "And that's what's gonna happen to you constantly if you don't comply."
-x-
"Her right eye is bleeding." Sona observed as Akane's right eye had started bleeding after the movement she uttered the word Tsukuyomi. "Tsubaki heal the bleeding?" she asked her queen.
"Don't! You might interrupt her. Let's wait for her to finish first then you can heal her." Rias stopped them. "Azazel's files mentioned that bleeding tends to occur when she uses techniques in this advanced form of Sharingan known as the Mangekyō Sharingan…" she informed them but was interrupted by chuckle coming from Sona.
"Heh.. Sharingan, Mangekyō Sharingan, did she come up with name?" Sona spoke her voice rich with mirth.
"I actually asked the very same question. And if you are curious, no she didn't name it, it was the tablet that showed her names. Anyways, the bleeding is caused by the strain these advanced techniques put on her eyes." she replied.
"And that is what will eventually blind her?" Sona asked.
"Yeah, the fact she can use base form of sharingan without any side effects is a miracle and that is thanks to mutations. Decades of inbreeding has caused their family line to evolve further. But no amount of mutations will help her get a handle on divine power. Normal human body is just not built to handle divine power." She explained.
"And that's the other reason why she wants to become a devil?" Sona asked.
"Yeah."
"Hey, you two come take a look at this." Tsubaki called them.
"What is it?" Sona asked her, who pointed towards Akane and the stray.
"Look at the eye movements on Akane and the stray." She told them. Their eyes were moving in time, in Akane's case, her right eye while both of the stray's eyes were moving. "Akane's and the stray's eyes are moving in the same direction with the same speed which is insane as both are in a state of REM sleep. Two people's eye movement following the same pattern and sleep is next to impossible." She explained it to them.
"So is this because of the illusion she cast on *AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*" Sona was interrupted by guttural scream coming out of stray's mouth catching the three of them of guard as they instinctually jumped away as if they were dodging an attack.
"What the hell is wrong with him?" It was Rias who asked that question prompting Tsubaki to go near the stray, who was still screaming and give him a quick check "I… don't know. There are no new physical wounds on him that could cause him to scream like this."
The screaming continued for a few good seconds before they stopped and then started again, before stopping yet again. This cycle of screaming in agony, then calm, then screaming again continued until his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell on the ground as if he was dead, which prompted Tsubaki to check on his vitals.
"He is fine, you can take a look at him later, we have much more important things to worry about." Akane spoke, making three of them to turn around and look at her. She seemed fine, if not noticeably winded, also her right eye was now closed.
"You are back?" Rias asked stupidly, not really sure what had just happened.
"No, I am still roaming through the cosmos." She gave her a cheeky answer, "Of course I am back. Now where did you put the card in which those dead bodies were in?" she asked them.
"Ohh, yeah I remembered putting it my pockets ,wait a second." Rias said as she began searching her pockets.
As Rias was searching for the card, Sona came forward and asked, "So do you have everything you need from him? Or are there still some memories you weren't able to access?"
"Access to memories was really not an issue in this case as he voluntarily told me everything and as we were inside an illusion, our surroundings started to morph as he starting telling me about himself so much so that I can see what exactly happened in his day to day life. So yes, I have everything my clone would need for this operation." Akane explained.
"And are you ok? The files mentioned that you always passed out after using the Mangekyō Sharingan." Rias enquired with an honest caring tone, which made Akane smile softly at her in return.
"Yeah I am ok. I won't pick a fight with anybody in this state sure, but I am ok, I just need to get a good sleep after all this is done." Akane replied to which Rias nods, before she gives her the card.
"Good, now someone get the stray's clothes as well as his battle deck and follow me, we need to leave for the hospital ASAP after we are done sealing the dead bodies." Akane told them before she started moving towards the glass door.
"What about the Stray? Are we just leaving him here?" It was Tsubaki who asked that question.
"Yeah, he isn't gonna wake up any time soon, so you really have nothing to worry about, though on second thought, why don't you stay here Shinra-san and take an in depth look on him? I am very curious about the damage using Tsukuyomi has caused on the stray." She asked her.
"Hmmm, even I am interested in finding out the aftereffects?" Sona muttered under her breath.
"Are you sure I should stay here? Won't you be needing me in the hospital?" Tsubaki asked.
"Yeah I can handle the stuff at the hospital" She assured her.
"Hmm ok, I will have the report on the stray ready by tomorrow." Tsubaki replied, to which Akane replied with a single nod and she left the room with Sona and Rias following her.
"So, is there a specific reason why you need to seal these dead bodies back in the card?" Sona asked as she closed the onsen door behind her.
"Yeah several reasons actually, one of them being is, that the other stray exorcists here would be expecting them as proof." Akane explained "You didn't remove anything from the bodies, did you?" She asked them as she kneeled before the bodies.
"No, aside from Tsubaki who examined the bodies for a bit none of us have touched the bodies." Sona replied. "Were they someone important? Victims of a contract killing, perhaps it would make sense Wetwork are only left for fugitive groups to make good money."
"If they were victims of mere wetwork things would have been far more simple and I am afraid that is not the case here. These two were the exorcists that were escorting that girl to True Cross. They were supposed to arrive there by noon today." She informed them, before she raised the arm of one of the dead bodies nearest to her before letting it go, and the arm fell lifelessly on the ground as expected from a dead body, "And as we can clearly see that's not gonna happen. And I hope that you know what happens when a team of exorcists goes dark?" Akane asked them.
"They will send Guides to the groups last known location." Rias spoke her eyes now wide with the realization.
"Correct. One of the other reasons why these bodies need to be kept sealed is because if they find out about what's happening here, they will bust in and fuck up this entire infiltration plan I have." Akane explained as she brought the card out and with a quick flash of light, the dead bodies were gone as the image of the same dead bodies now appeared on the card.
"Let's go then." Akane spoke putting the card away in her pocket as Sona summoned a Teleportation Seal in which the three of them quietly disappeared.
-x-
Beta Reader- Echoes19
Author Notes: - Sorry for the Long absence. I do hope everyone is doing ok in these troubled times.
Sorry again I got a bit sidetracked after I bought myself a graphics tablet but I am back now and I have a new Beta with me as Raquiesha went missing as soon as the pandemic began (Don't worry she is fine I guess she updated her own fic a few weeks ago) Sooo meet Echoes19 she will be editing the chapters of our fic from now on.